What is a mission? We might imagine a mission as an important errand, a military expedition, or a challenging journey. A mission is, in its simplest form, being sent. If I am sent it means, first of all, that someone sends me. Second, it means I am being sent to somewhere or someone else. Third, it means that once I arrive, I must accomplish something. Finally, it means that once I have accomplished my task, it is time to return home.
These four dimensions are present whether your spouse sends you to the grocery store to buy milk or whether the captain sends you into the flames to rescue survivors of a wildfire. It’s also true of the mission of disciples of Jesus. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” Jesus tells the first disciples after his resurrection (John 20:21).
Jesus is the pattern of our own mission, and, in one sense, our mission is nothing other than to continue the mission of Jesus into our own time and space. As the Father has sent Jesus, now Jesus sends us. As Jesus was sent to the children of Israel, now Jesus sends us to the farthest reaches of the earth. As Jesus spent himself in love until “it is accomplished” (John 19:30), now Jesus commands us to share his love with those to whom we are sent. And as Jesus returned to the Father after completing – we might say “beginning” – his work on earth, so we will one day be called to return to the Father into the everlasting joy of heaven – the foretaste of which on earth is the sacred liturgy.
The universal Church has a mission. Each individual disciple has a mission. And our parish community at Saint Rose of Lima has a mission. Each is so diverse and yet so interconnected.
Our task at Saint Rose is that all would be eager to be sent and fulfill the mission God has given to us!
In the love of Christ,
Pastor