The Meaning of Being a Missionary Disciple

If you haven't yet listened to Bishop Fabre's Chrism Mass Homily from this year, we'd encourage you to do so.  Here, he speaks of the meaning of being a missionary disciple.

The text of his homily follows here:

I have learned that nothing threatens the sacred more than familiarity. Families know this; married couples know this; clergy know this. When we become too familiar with someone, or something, we loose our awe, our wonder at being a part of their life. When we become too familiar, we cease beholding the other as they are and we begin seeing them solely through our own experience, our own expectations and our own categories. Family members can become too familiar with one another. When they do it is easy to hold on to the past rather than being present to each other in the current moment. Married couples can become too familiar with each other. When they do it is easy to take each other for granted. Clergy can become too familiar with “the call.” When they do it easy to forget the fervor they once had at ordination and eventually they become too comfortable.

Yes, nothing threatens the sacred more than familiarity.  Nazareth was a community familiar with Jesus. In today’s Gospel St. Luke writes: “Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up.” The people of Nazareth are so familiar with the person of Jesus that they fail to see WHO He is and fail to fully understand WHAT He says. As “this Scripture passage is fulfilled in (their) hearing”, they miss the Truth of the MESSENGER and miss the importance of the MESSAGE. In today’s Gospel Jesus outlines His mission, and Nazareth is so familiar with the sacred they miss the message; they miss the revelation of Jesus’ mission.  I pray we never get too familiar with the sacred that we make the same mistake. I pray that today, at this particular time in our Diocese’ history, we do not miss the revelation of our mission.

Jesus’ revelation of the mission, His mandate, is as relevant to us today as it was when he first announced it two thousand years ago.  We have a mission.  I repeat … we … you and I … all of us together … we all have a mission. It is the mission of Jesus Christ. It is the mission of the Catholic Church. It is the mission for all the Baptized.  In his 2013 Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, our Holy Father Pope Francis writes: “The bishop must always foster this missionary communion in his diocesan Church … To do so, he will sometimes go before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope vibrant.”   I am standing before you today in order to “point the way,” wanting to “keep our hope vibrant,” praying that we never get so familiar with the person of Jesus Christ that we miss His mandate; that we miss His revelation of the mission.  Pope Francis continues: “Evangelization takes place in obedience to the missionary mandate of Jesus: ‘Go therefore and make disciples.’” To make disciples: this is the mission. It is the mission OF Jesus; it is a mission FROM Jesus.

Yes, we have a mission. And, there’s a lot at stake with the mission.  If we’re not careful, the Church can grow so familiar with the mission we can cling to structures, doing things because we’ve always done them.  If we’re not careful, the clergy can grow so familiar with the mission that we get too comfortable with routine and settle for what is.  If we’re not careful, the Baptized can grow so familiar with the mission that we forget that we even have one.  Returning to Pope Francis’ Joy of the Gospel, he writes: “I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. ‘Mere administration’ can no longer be enough. Throughout the world, let us be ‘permanently in a state of mission.’”

Before speaking specifically about our role in the mission, I would like to paint an image of the mission on the canvas of what it means to be a missionary. After all, if the mission is to make disciples, the disciples themselves need a vision of who they are called to BE before they can be clear on what they’re called TO DO.  What does it mean to be a disciple? Or, as Pope Francis writes, what does it mean to be a missionary disciple? As I prayerfully reflect upon the writing of the Holy Father, I see three things clearly articulated in his vision of missionary discipleship: one: encounter … two: conversion … and, three: response.  For us to understand what Pope Francis is calling us to we must embrace those three things: encounter, conversion, and response.

What is the mission?  What does it mean to be a disciple?  What kind of missionaries do we need for the mission? Perhaps we can best imagine a disciple as one who has encountered the person of Jesus Christ; has allowed Christ to reorient their life; and wants to respond to Christ with the totality of their life.

Encounter.  Again, in Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis writes: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI also referenced this as he wrote: “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.” A missionary disciple is one who has had an ENCOUNTER with the person of Jesus Christ. 

That’s what Jesus did. He called.  He called people to follow Him, to get to know Him. He called Peter to follow Him, to get to know Him, and before sending Peter on mission he asked him: “Do you love me?”  This encounter, the forming of a deeply personal relationship with Jesus Christ, is the heart of every missionary disciple and it is what propels the missionary on to share this love with others. This intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is what bears fruit in the missionary disciple’s life. The first step in becoming a disciple, in forming disciples, is encountering the person of Jesus Christ and developing a personal relationship with Him.  

However, the hard work of discipleship isn’t starting a relationship as much as it is staying committed to the relationship. We need CONVERSION. We have to choose to choose. Married couples understand this. The hard part of being a spouse isn’t the wedding, it’s the marriage. Clergy understand this. The hard part of being ordained isn’t giving your life to God but resisting the urge to take it back. A mature relationship with Christ requires that I learn to say “No” so that I can continue to say “Yes.” Disciples learn how to persevere through the refinement of conversion. Disciples learn how to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Disciples learn how to “no longer live (and think) as the Gentiles do”, shedding the standard of “the world” and thinking with the mind of Christ – and the Church – so as live in the light.

Encounter.  Conversion.  Response.  Missionary disciples want God to guide their lives, they are open to being led. Disciples yield to the Holy Spirit. They do not go before Jesus and simply say "come bless this effort" but, they learn to first listen to Him, to recognize the path that He points out, and then they respond in generosity of heart. Discernment – discerning the little things – becomes a new way of life such that the words of Jesus in some way become the words of the disciple: “I only do what I see the Father doing.” Of course, when I fall in love with God, I begin to SEE as God sees, I begin to WANT what God wants. Therefore, every mature disciple sheds the facades of individualism, relativism, and consumerism and begins to see Christ in others … in those I live with … in those I’m estranged from … in the poor and marginalized. Love for Christ propels me out of myself and the disciple cannot help but share the Good News with others. Thus, evangelization is no longer seen as a program, or reserved for a few zealots. Rather evangelization is a response to a person and His Church whom I love, and a person that I want the whole world to know. 

There is a mission … a mission to form disciples … a mission to help all people encounter the person of Jesus Christ … persevere in the process of true conversion … and respond to Christ however He calls. Each of us has a role in the mission, so now allow me to speak directly to three aspects of the mission.

First, I would like to speak with my brother priests. I again hearken back to the fact that nothing threatens the sacred more than familiarity. My brothers, there’s a lot at stake in the mission and I urge us – as your Bishop I beg you – to recommit today to the MISSION. In just a few moments I will ask you to recommit to promises made at your priesthood ordination. We do so because when we forget the importance of the QUESTIONS, we struggle to live the reality of the ANSWERS. Therefore, let me remind us all of what we promised God, and His people, at BOTH our diaconate and priestly ordinations:

• We were asked “Are you resolved … to live with humility?” Humility is a posture, it’s a way of thinking. The enemy to humility is pride, control. And, so because the mission is so important, I ask both you and me: Who’s in charge of our lives? In reality, in our daily decisions, who’s in charge?
• We were asked “Are you resolved … to proclaim this faith in word and action?” Pope Paul VI reminds us: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” Are our lives living testimony of our homilies? Do our parishioners SEE in us what they HEAR from us?
• We were asked “Are you resolved … to maintain a spirit of prayer appropriate to your way of life?” The enemy of prayer is production. Do we pray … daily … not simply for the sake of preparing a homily, but the sake of a communion with Christ so personal that it animates and gives meaning to our celibacy? Are we still praying?
• At our diaconate ordination we were asked “Are you resolved … to shape your way of life always according to the example of Christ?” At our priesthood ordination we were asked “Are you resolved … to unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest?” The enemy of configuration is complacency. Do we see ourselves as in persona Christi capitis on our “day off” … when it’s “our” time … when we’re in private … is the totality of our life – every relationship, every motive, every decision resolved to be in accordance with Christ and Christ alone?
• We were asked “Are you resolved … to obedience?” The enemy of obedience is independence. Are we resolved to doing whatever God asks of us? Do we struggle with any aspect of the Church or Her teaching? Is my first instinct to think “What do I think” rather than “What does Christ teach?”

Each of these questions begins with “Are you resolved?” My brother priests, today the Church asks you are you resolved … to the mission? Are you resolved to your own personal encounter, your own on-going conversion, and your own unbridled response?

My dear brother priests, I hope you know the great affection I have for you in my heart.  I am deeply grateful for the ministry that you undertake in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church.  I am truly grateful for your service in the name of the Lord to the Church here in Houma-Thibodaux.

Next, I would like to address the faithful here present and in our parishes. Returning to Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis writes: “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters.’” The mission of forming disciples happens in the parish. Our parishes are schools of evangelization. The Holy Father continues: “All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization .... Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are ‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries’, but rather that we are always ‘missionary disciples.’”   Jesus Christ has given the Church a mission and that requires all of us to be a part of the mission. Just as I implored the priests to recommit to their promises, I now ask all of us – all of our parishes – to commit to the mission of making disciples.   To our parishioners I ask: Are you resolved to the mission of assisting other parishioners with their personal encounter, committing to their on-going conversion, and nurturing their free response?

Finally, I address our diocesan leadership. The Holy Father continues: “To make this missionary impulse ever more focused, generous and fruitful, I encourage each particular Church to undertake a resolute process of discernment, purification and reform. … Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way.’ I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization.”   I would like to thank the hundreds of men and women who daily give themselves so generously to the work of the diocese. I cannot do this without you.  As you receive my gratitude, let us recommit today to the MISSION, to the person of Jesus Christ … and whatever Jesus may ask of us. To our diocesan staff I ask: Are we ready for the “discernment, purification and reform” that our Holy Father asks? Are we resolved to a corporate encounter, an institutional conversion, and a diocesan response?

Nothing threatens the sacred more than familiarity. Today’s most sacred Chrism Mass invites us to ask for a renewal in our posture before the sacred. May we never become too familiar with the awesome mission entrusted to us by God.  May we be forever SHAPED by the mission.  May we forever BURN with the mission.  May we forever LABOR in the mission.  And, may the words from the Rite of Ordination guide all of us today: “May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.”  AMEN.

-Bishop Shelton Fabre

  March 24, 2016 | Cathedral of St Francis de Sales, Houma, LA

"The Calling of Saint Matthew"

by Caravaggio