杏MAP导航

By Joseph Tulloch

杏MAP导航 Francis has released .

In the text, the 杏MAP导航 reflects on the Gospel parable of the Wedding Banquet, where the king tells his servants 鈥淕o therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find鈥�.

'Go and invite'

鈥淚n the king鈥檚 command to his servants,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis writes, 鈥渨e find two words that express the heart of the mission: the verbs 鈥榯o go out鈥� and 鈥榯o invite鈥�.鈥�

The 杏MAP导航 reflected on each of these words in turn.

鈥淢ission," he said, "is a tireless going out to all men and women, in order to invite them to encounter God and enter into communion with him", just as Jesus, "the Good Shepherd and messenger of the Father, went out in search of the lost sheep". 

Turning to consider the king鈥檚 exhortation to "invite鈥�, the 杏MAP导航 said that 鈥渉ere we can see another, no less important, aspect of the mission entrusted by God.鈥�

鈥淎s we can imagine,鈥� he said, 鈥渢he servants conveyed the king鈥檚 invitation with urgency but also with great respect and kindness.鈥�

Christians today, the 杏MAP导航 stressed, should do the same: they are called to preach the Gospel with 鈥渏oy, magnanimity and benevolence that are the fruits of the Holy Spirit within them.鈥�

The marriage feast

The reference to the marriage feast, meanwhile, the 杏MAP导航 said, brings to mind two other dimensions of mission: the eschatological (that is, the dimension having to do with the end times) and the Eucharistic.

The king鈥檚 banquet, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, stands in for the heavenly banquet: 鈥渋t is an image of ultimate salvation in the Kingdom of God.鈥�

Referring to the fact that many early Christians believed the Second Coming of Christ to be imminent, the 杏MAP导航 said that, for them, 鈥渕issionary zeal had a powerful eschatological dimension.  They sensed the urgency of the preaching of the Gospel.鈥�

鈥淭oday too", he stressed, "it is important to maintain this perspective."

At the same time, however, the 杏MAP导航 noted, the next life is "anticipated even now in the banquet of the Eucharist".

Thus, he said, "the invitation to the eschatological banquet that we bring to everyone in our mission of evangelization is intrinsically linked to the invitation to the Eucharistic table, where the Lord feeds us with his word and with his Body and Blood."

'Everyone'

The final portion of the 杏MAP导航's message concerned the fact that the king extents his invitation to 'everyone'. 

鈥淭his is the heart of mission," 杏MAP导航 Francis stressed, "that 鈥榓ll鈥�, excluding no one." 

Christ鈥檚 disciples, he said, "have always had a heartfelt concern for all persons, whatever their social or even moral status." He noted that, in the parable, the king orders the the servants to gather 鈥渁ll whom they found, both good and bad", as well as "the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame鈥�.

And, 杏MAP导航 Francis stressed, "the mission for all requires the commitment of all." This implies, he said, that, in order to become more truly missionary, the Church must : "Synodality is essentially missionary and, vice versa, mission is always synodal. "