When 60 priests and five parish administrators gathered at Mayaro for a three-day retreat two weeks ago to discuss, primarily, the mission of the Church, they must have been convinced that it was a subject in need of urgent attention and that they had an important role to play in its fulfilment.

For those outside the Church looking in, it may have seemed perfectly understandable that the Church would want to consider its mission. After all, every enterprise in the modern world sees the sharing of a vision and identifying a mission as vital for its success. Mission, though, is a typically Christian concept: Christianity’s gift to secular enterprise.

For the Church, mission is not simply a path to achieve a desirable end; it is about sending and being sent. Christ is the one who sends. The Church’s mission is Christ’s mission and those who make up its body have been sent to accomplish his mission.

The Church’s universal mission is set out in what is traditionally called, the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes to the end of time” (Matthew 28: 19, 20). It is through the various ministries in the Church that this mission must be accomplished.

Priests and deacons, religious and laity all share in Christ’s prophetic, priestly and royal office. We must be willing, therefore, to challenge all, from the highest to the lowest, to see from God’s perspective.

We have to find ways to bring the believer into a deeper encounter with Christ. With the heart of the Shepherd King, each of us, through humble service, must seek to attend to, and draw attention to, the most vulnerable in our society.

To each member of the Church, Christ says: “I am sending you.”  And he sends us out, Pope John Paul II says, “because men and women the world over long for true liberation and fulfilment.

The poor seek justice and solidarity; the oppressed demand freedom and dignity; the blind cry out for light and truth. We are not being sent out to proclaim some abstract truth. The Gospel is not a theory or an ideology. The gospel is life”.

Mission a learning experience

In every age the Church in every culture has had to listen afresh to the voice of the Lord. Mission is not a static act of Christ sending out his disciples at the Ascension. It has to accept the reality of change in the world in which it exists. Mission is, therefore, a learning experience.

The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes states: “The Church has always had the duty of scrutinising the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.

Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognise and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings and its often dramatic characteristics.” Art 4.

It was to come to grips with the mission of the Church in Trinidad and Tobago at this time that the priests and parish administrators gathered at the Mayaro Resource Centre.

The retreat and also the upcoming Synod 2008 emphasise that the task before us cannot be accomplished in an independent fashion. The fact of mission underscores the need for solidarity and that the Church is community.

One of the questions we have to consider going forward is: to what extent has our failure to take mission as seriously as we should, contributed to the malaise among us?  How might a closer embrace of the mission have resulted in a better nation?

Mission requires humility. We all have fallen short. The Church is a human institution but, it is important to remember, one filled with the grace and power of God. It is for this reason that we are hopeful.