Missionary Journey of Charity

"Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12). This is the supreme calling of God to each one of us: to love. To love is to wish the best for the other person, and God is the summum bonum of all because He is the fullest explanation of our existence and He can only completely satisfy our deepest longing. As a result, "the purpose and destiny of man is to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven" (Baltimore Catechism, 6). Each person had a unique journey through life, which included joys, sorrows, failures, and victories. In the life of a Christian, there is a special journey to tell. Thus, the journey of Christian life revolves around the journey of encounter, synodality, and mission.

The first journey of Christian life is the journey of encounter. "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Benedict XVI). This encounter means an experience of God or an experience of love because love is another name of God. This enlightens us that an encounter can change one’s life and be a light and hope for the world. That encounter later became a relationship. Not a relationship with a personality, but a personal relationship with a person, and that is Jesus. This personal relationship entails witnessing. Knowing that you are loved by God, we become a witness of love and that love will inspire us to share that experience with God.

The second journey of Christian life is the journey of synodality. It is journeying together as the people of God. After an encounter, we were firmly planted and rooted in the Church. We will live together as one community and family, sharing with each other the fruits of our encounter. It brings us fellowship and a sense of belonging. You and I are part of the Church. Together as a Church, we will cooperate with each other to fulfill the will of God in our lives. Partaking in the gifts we have received from the Lord and sharing them as a loving service to others. We share the fruits of our labor as we journey together in communion with Christ. The fellowship we have shared will continually flow through each and everyone of us only if we open the door of our hearts.

The third journey of Christian life is the journey of mission. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Our mission is to go forth and set the world on fire, as in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola. When it comes to sharing Christ with other people, it has nothing to do with giftedness at all. It has to do with passion and love and a simple articulation in our lives to others of what God has done in you and my life. Let the encounter we have with God and the synodality we enjoyed with our brothers and sisters in Christ be shared with other people who do not know Christ. The motive of our mission is charity. We want to share with other people this experience of joy we had as a friend of Jesus because we desire the highest good for others—salvation.

In summary, the journey of a Christian missionary starts with an encounter, is strengthened by synodality, and ends with a lasting mission. When we gather all of this, we will realize that this is a rule of life, the kerygma of our faith, and our common vocation—to be a saint. This is the story of saints too. They started with an encounter with Jesus, they journeyed together with their fellow friends and family as a Church, and they spread the message of love and salvation in the spirit of mission. This means that you and I can be saints too. They became saints not because they were perfect and never made a mistake; they became saints because they stood up again after every fall, they held on to God, and they journeyed with charity. Let us stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit we received in baptism and confirmation. Let the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of mission, continuously inspire us in our missionary journey of charity.