The Festival of Mission: But what Mission was Celebrated?

Discussing and reflecting on mission are important tasks of the church. Dedicating an entire festival to the topic is next level. A recent initiative of the Catholic Church was very intentional about the task of making the topic of mission a priority. From September 29 to October 2, 2022, the second Festival of Mission was held in Milan, Italy with the theme of Living by Gift (Vivere per dono is the original theme in Italian, but it is a very difficult concept to translate). Due to the pandemic, five years had passed since the first Festival of Mission. The second Festival of Mission was held, in the words of the organizers, "in the trenches dug-out by the COVID-19 pandemic," and therefore "aware of the complexity of the times we are living in, we believe the moment is ripe to sow that creative imagination and missionary boldness so often evoked by Pope Francis: 'This is the propitious time to find the courage of a new imagination of the possible, with the realism that only the Gospel can offer us.'"

Reports, seminars, exhibitions, panel discussions, etc., together with the participation of important figures from the world of politics, entertainment and culture, provided a rich and varied environment. While the Festival of Mission was without doubt an ambitious, well-organized and admirable initiative, it must also be noted that it is not clear what mission the Catholic Church has in mind when it talks about the subject. Perhaps this is because the main framework for the Festival was Pope Francis' most recent encyclical All Brothers.  

Many of the key words that have shaped Francis’s papacy also shaped the conference: dialogue, unity, peace, creativity, collaboration, listening, fraternity, gratuitousness. The contributors often spoke of a missionary church in which all the baptized are missionaries. They spoke of a church that is always outward focused and that operates on behalf of humanity. The missional church builds a culture of collaboration. "Together we build dreams," said one speaker. "When one encounters another culture, another people, another religion, one can only be enriched. This is the missionary experience. This is our joy," said another. This is All Brothers.

These are all attractive words, but they are completely void of missionary meaning if they are not accompanied by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The term gospel was often mentioned during the Festival, but it was never defined. If the gospel is indeed good news, it is impossible to determine the content of this news by watching and listening to the presentations given. I listened to hours of presentations and, in the spirit of All Brothers, sin was never mentioned. This, however, makes sense. If we are “all brothers” it is not necessary to talk about sin and forgiveness and salvation. Indeed, the redemption the sinner has in Christ was never mentioned. The speakers spoke often about dialogue, but it is not clear what ought to be discussed. Many spoke about unity, but it is not clear what it is that unites us. They spoke about listening, but never about proclamation. One speaker recalled a question he had asked a missionary who lived in Nigeria for forty-five years. "What did you do for forty-five years in Nigeria?" he asked him. "I listened," was the answer. "Forty-five years of listening. What a beautiful mission!" said the speaker.

But is that really a “beautiful mission”? Forty-five years of listening? Is it not also the mission of the church to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ who died and rose again so that sinners might be forgiven, redeemed and saved? Peace was mentioned at the Festival of Mission, but no reference was made to the peace we have because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was instead a peace that is the result of social and environmental projects. Much was said about brotherhood, but it was not a fraternity that we have thanks to a common confession that Christ Jesus is Lord. It is instead a generic brotherhood that we share on the basis of our common humanity. "When one encounters another culture and another religion, one can only be enriched. This is our missionary experience. This is our joy." These words spoken during the conference accurately summarize what the Festival of Mission had in mind when it spoke about mission. But is it the biblical mission that Christ entrusted to his disciples and his church?

Christian mission imposes on the church and its faithful the responsibility to both hear and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. While it implores the church to explore and find points of contact with culture and its context, mission also demands that the "scandal" of the gospel be allowed to challenge the cultural narrative and it demands that sin be confessed and repentance pursued. The gospel of Jesus Christ depends on a faithful proclamation that we are all sinners under God's righteous judgment and that only in Christ can we be saved. Mission is the faithful proclamation of this message.

While the Festival of Mission employed many attractive words and concepts, they were not those of the biblical gospel. God's love was discussed, but His love was always detached from sin and our sinful nature. There was much talk about Jesus, but not about his redemptive work on the cross that saves us from our sins. There was talk about the Holy Spirit, but not about how he works in our hearts through the power of God’s Word to bring about the radical transformation of the heart and its desires. Mission was the key theme, but it is a different mission than the biblical one. The theme Living by Gift was detached from the Son of God who gave his life so that we might be redeemed and saved from our sins. What mission, then, was celebrated at the Festival of Mission?