Getting Clarity on the Mission of Jesus
January 20, 2021
Fr. John Riccardo
Last time, we looked at the need to consider whether or not our parishes are set up to accomplish the mission the Lord entrusted to the Church. To best answer that, we need to get clear on what that mission is. To do that, we first have to back up even further and get clear on the vision that animates the mission, for mission flows from vision.
The vision and mission are not things we come up with on our own. They belong to God. We know them by Divine Revelation. What is necessary, therefore, is for us to acquire God’s vision, then the mission the Father entrusted to the Son, and then the mission the Son entrusted to us. In subsequent weeks, we will take a look at the mission of the disciple and the mission of the Church. For now, however, let us confine ourselves to getting clarity on the mission of the Son.
Several months ago, we had an exhilarating conversation with two U.S. Marine Corps Majors. They had heard a few of our podcasts, and reached out wanting to share some things with us that they thought would resonate with our way of thinking. In the course of the conversation, they told us how essential it is when they prepare soldiers for a mission that they have clarity on it. Without this clarity, morale quickly falls, people get frustrated, and people might die. They used an expression with us that has quickly become part of our way of thinking and speaking: “We need people to understand that we are doing X in order to Y.” When they are preparing their men and women for a mission, they told us it is crucial that soldiers are able to answer why they are doing whatever they are doing. For example, “We are landing at Normandy in order to…”
Our experience in parish ministry the past 25 years has led us to seriously doubt that there is clarity and alignment among Christians on the mission of Jesus, let alone the mission of the disciple, or the mission of the Church. God became a man in order to...do what exactly? If we were to ask the typical Sunday Mass attendee this question, would an answer readily fall off their tongue? If we were to point to Jesus lying in the manger and ask, “Why has He come?” would there be clarity and alignment amongst us? If we were to point to Jesus on the cross and ask, “Jesus went to the cross in order to do what?”—again, would there be clarity and alignment? Only if we understand His mission will we ever have clarity on our own mission as His disciples, let alone the mission of the Church as a whole.
Obviously, this is a topic that far exceeds the scope of this space. However, we think the vision of the Father, and the mission of the Son, is summed up most powerfully and succinctly in the collect for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King of the Universe:
“Almighty ever living God, whose will it is to restore all things in Your beloved Son, the King of the universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, set free from slavery, may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim Your praise. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”
Ah, so here’s God’s vision: “to restore all things,” by freeing us from slavery, so that we might forever praise God as He justly deserves.
From this vision flows the mission of the Son. The Father sends the Son, then, to show us His love (cf. John 3:16), to make atonement for our sins (cf. 2 Cor 5:21), and to go to war for us against Satan and the powers of Sin and Death (cf. Col 2:15; 1 John 3:8). And He has done these things! He accomplished His mission by His life, death and resurrection. Easter Sunday is the day that the restoration of all things began. This is crucial to get right. These things—the defeat of Satan’s power, the triumphing over the powers of darkness, the defeat of the power of Sin and Death, our reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of our sins, and more—have happened. In other words, Jesus is not just kind, or patient, or loving, or merciful. He is all these things, and more, to be sure. Jesus is Lord, and this is not merely the conclusion to a prayer. It is the truth. He is absolutely and utterly unconquerable. He has no rival. To Him belongs “all authority in heaven and on earth” even now (Mt 28:18). He is “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5), even amidst all the chaos we are living through.
The consummation of this restoration and re-creation will only happen when the Son returns in His glory, surrounded by His angels, but it has begun. Unless we get this right, unless we can clearly articulate what God became a man in order to do, we will never be able to clearly articulate what He sends us out in order to do.
We will turn to those things next week.