The mandate “you shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8) is the oracular expression of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ to his disciples just before his Ascension into heaven, we can aptly say it was his last “testament” to us as well as to his disciples then. As we learn from the Acts of the Apostles: “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (1:8). According to Pope Francis, it is the call of every Christian to bear witness to Christ (not to self) Why the Celebration? Providentially, this year, the Church celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Second Vacation Council. In the words of Pope Saint John XXIII: ‘the purpose of the Council was the “modernization of the Church after 20 centuries of life”. This refreshing of the Church’s traditions is commonly referred to as aggionamento (bringing up to date in Italian) Simply put, Vatican II was created to help apply the truths of Christ to modern –day life. The 20th Century had brought a new way of life to the world’s citizens, with big changes such as World War II having a huge impact on even the smallest communities. The Pope warns against worldly ‘Progressivism” and backwardlooking “traditionalism”.
Fundamentally, the Second Vatican Council was the universal Catholic Church’s response to God’s love and to Jesus’ command to feed his sheep. Pope Francis said, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the council’s opening. The council reminded the Church of what is “essential”, the Pope said; “a Church madly in love with its Lord and with all men and women whom he loves, one that is rich in Jesus and poor in assets, “ a church that is free and freeing”. Implication: The logic of authentic missionary demand mission activities anchored on Pastoral maturity. In this wise, Pastoral maturity means the ability to be able to take care of one’s local ordinary Pastoral needs and at the same time be in the position to assist others. Basically, this Pastoral maturity brings about vibrant self-reliance and therefore accentuates missionary consciousness of every baptised Christian The Roman Pontiff, that is the Pope, reconfirmed this conviction when he said in his World Mission Sunday message of 2013, “the concern for the Churches that the Bishop of Rome Shares with his brother Bishops finds an important expression in the activity of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) which are meant to animate and deepen the missionary conscience of every baptized Christian and of every community …” Are we still witnesses? Quite frankly, as disciples of Jesus in this 21st century, we need more than ever before to refine our present missionary approach to authentic witnessing.
This is achievable only and only if it is amplified in various institutes of the Church especially in the seminaries, religious houses of formation, convents, indeed everywhere that two or three persons gather in the name of our Lord Jesus. The witnessing to our Lord Jesus Christ is both local and global. No wonder, Pope Paul VI told the African Bishops in Kampala, in 1969, we Africans must continue to be missionaries to our own people. Final Exhortation Jesus uses two images, mustard seed and leaven to draw our attention to the small beginnings of God’s kingdom among us. Quite often, God begins to establish his presence in very small and ordinary manner. The Spirit of God works in the ordinary events of life. However, like the mustard seed that grows into a large tree that provides home for birds of various kinds and like a small amount of yeast that works its way through the dough to make it rise, God’s Spirit does extraordinary things in the ordinary circumstances of human lives. Unworthy and weak as we are, we need to act as men and women of faith by discerning, discovering, and fanning into flame those tiny sparks of divine presence in our own lives and in the lives of those we encounter, in what seem like ordinary circumstances of human life. So, I dare ask; Are we still witnesses?
• Very Rev. Fr. Simeon Irabor is the Director, Pontifical Missions Societies (PMS), Archdiocese of Lagos
