Pope Benedict
XVI just after taking over the Papacy reminded the Christians by saying, “You
have before you the task of seeking new ways to announce Christ in situations
of rapid and often profound transformation, and of emphasizing the missionary
character of all pastoral activity." It has to be placed against the
background of the allegation that Churches are becoming increasingly
commercialized with little interest for the mission of Jesus and there is very
little hope of revival of mission. My recent interactions with a few new ways
of announcing Christ’s message made me to think that it is not all true that
the whole Church is commercialized and mission is dead.
I came across a
Catholic Priest who named himself Swami Sevand. His real name is Fr. Paul
Chungath (Sagar Diocese, M.P, India) with doctorate in spirituality, missiology
and perusing a third doctorate in Eucharist from an Indian theological college.
The bare footed saffron clad priest says, his mission started with a year long
pilgrimage to 21 Christian Ashrams spread from Kanyakumari to Himalayas. He
says people of all religions flock to him for blessings and seeks divine
guidance. People have no fear that he has come to convert them to Catholic
Church. He lives in a small hurt(Shanti
Ashram, Kamradev, Sagar, M.P, India) in the midst of people in prayer, manual
work and a few hours of rest. Fr. Robin Pullokaran, the Vicar General of Sagar
Diocese says that the life of Swami Sevand is really inspiring. The diocese has
kept open this type of options for priests and a few priests have come forward
to opt for similar missions.
I found some of
the religious congregations using facebook to get across to youth for the
purpose of vocation promotion. But here
I found one of the most creative mission minds working with one of the novel
ways to give word of God to youths and the elite class. He started a
centre/club with many facilities including coffee, snacks, free internet,
library for books, music, videos games, pool tables etc. He made it a good
place for the youth and elite classes to spend their free time. All those who
want avail these services need to take membership. The members get some
services free of cost and other paid. The word of God is open to them in
different forms and he says a few are getting attracted to Jesus. The person
who experiment this newer method is a Lay Minister (He prefers to remain behind
the scene) who runs a mission with above two hundred evangelists but still
believes that God has not called him to be an ordained minister.
The third worth
mentioning is the mobile missions started by the Sisters of Jesus, a religious
order based in Sagar Diocese with convents in different parts India. Fr. Robin Pullokaran says that two nuns (Sr.
Vinaya and Sr. Rani) in their religious habit live in a small house given by the
villagers (Semrahurt, Sagar, M.P, India). Their entire life is revolved around prayer,
helping people and a few hours of rest. They hold common prayer every day and
many people from the village join them. People do not have the fear of
conversion. They freely approach them to
know about Jesus. Realizing the works of the Holy Spirit they have started a
new mobile mission in Mohanpur a remote village in Guna District of M.P. The
nuns have named this type of evangelization as mobile missions because they
plan to move out to new villages every year.
I placed here a
few examples of growing missions in the North India. We need to believe that
Holy Spirit inspires a few at every age to spread his message. It is a fact
that when the sower scatters seeds only a few falls on the good ground which brings
hundred folds. The mission of Jesus will never die but will live forever
through his chosen ones.