"Nations everywhere, open doors for Christ! His gospel in no way diminishes human freedom, nor diminishes the respect which should be given to every culture and to what is good in every religion. By accepting Christ, you open yourself to the definitive Word of God, and to the One in whom God made himself fully known and has shown us the way to God himself." (St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 3)
Evangelization missions for those who do not know Christ is a quite in-depth discussion and continues to experience the renewal of meaning according to the current context. The mission (missio-Latin) inherited by Jesus was originally a vital idea to realize its significance, namely that all nations would know the mystery of Christ through preaching the Gospel (evangelization) and be united in Christ. One of the problems experienced by Asian nations, especially in many countries at this time when dealing with the preaching of the Gospel, is freedom of religion wrapped in the idea of pluralism. The idea of pluralism demands a freedom that prioritizes appreciation and respect for everyone who believes in whatever they believe.
In this situation, two problematic tensions arise: the evangelists (read: missionaries) make Christ the model and material for evangelization that needs to be proclaimed radically, but on the one hand, they have to deal with situations of diversity that demand respect for the 'truth.' faith which of course is not entirely true. So, how do missionaries address and live this tension? This discussion will give us a simple understanding of the meaning of mission and the tensions that need to be faced as observers of Church Catholics.
The Complexity of the Mission of Evangelization in Asia
I depart from the paper of Domenico Colombo, PIME, on missions in Asia [1]. For him, at that time, the concept of mission offered by the universal Church was not considered necessary by Asian theologians because they experienced difficulties. The difficulty experienced is that the mission of evangelization is irrelevant to the spirit of dialogue that characterizes the Asian continent. In this case, it is not a question of whether the Church can carry out dialogue. However, instead, there is a specific concern that the mission of evangelization is being ignored and replaced with a spirit of dialogue. The dialogue promotes justice, love, and peace for all people. The spirit of dialogue provides opportunities for missionaries to present the Kingdom of God on the Asian continent. Thus, the mission model in Asia is said to be a 'Kingdom' centered model. The presumption is that the mission of the Church, which is contained in baptism, catechesis of the faith, and other proclamations of the same kind, switches to the preaching of justice, peace, and love following the ideal of The Kingdom of God.
Broadly speaking, Colombo describes some of the thinking of Asian theologians regarding the complexity of the Asian mission. First, the opportunity for baptism in Asia is no longer relevant because what needs to be done is to build collaborative dialogues in the life of people of other religions. Second, the expansion of the Church is considered colonialism because, in the beginning, the mindset of Christianity always referred to colonialism from the West. Third, there is no more proselytism, meaning that the Asian Church is oriented towards practical theology and gives an understanding that all religions have the same noble values.
From this understanding, a new Christology and Ecclesiology arose, meaning that people are invited to move from questions on the identity of Jesus and His salvation to practical theology, namely how to live with other religions. Fifth, the emergence of dialogue means that there are no absolute and exclusive claims regarding Christology and provides maximum opportunities for human freedom. Some of these things raise quite a serious problem: the ideas and forms of dialogue offered by these Asian theologians fortify the mission of evangelization regarding Christ, baptism, and the acceptance of people into the universal Church community. In this way, evangelization preaching should develop more.
This problem is still relevant today, especially in those countries which have a diversity of religions. Thoughts about dialogue and general welfare become a joint effort and aspiration that can elevate all human beings to a better level. This form of pluralism becomes a challenge for evangelists to proclaim one absolute salvation, namely salvation in Christ. So, the next question is whether pluralism is a serious obstacle. In other words, is the mission of evangelization still relevant amid diversity?
Mission Exclusivity of Evangelization
Reading the world's current situation, the proclamation of exclusive faith is not easy to take for granted. In the context of the Catholic Church's faith, the mission of evangelization is the right and obligation of an evangelist because there is a single truth that needs to be known universally, namely salvation that comes from Christ. So, what about the reality of pluralism which exists as a fruit of human freedom in believing in their truth?
The common focus is that everyone has the opportunity to know the nature and essence of the truth of that faith. Thus, every religion also provides space for people's curiosity by teaching existing religious dogmas, providing opportunities to live (live-in) with religious communities, and answering metaphysical questions of faith.
Of course, the efforts of each religion have logical consequences that must be acknowledged, namely an enthusiastic attitude or even an anarchic attitude that tries to weaken the teaching or truth from another religion. The existence of a religious 'market' that various religions are trying to showcase raises a problem that is not easy to answer with certainty. The problem is that the truth of every religion is almost the same, namely the matter of soul safety (Salus Animarum Suprema Lex). In fact, because of this common goal, we are directed together to appreciate the truth of the faith of existing religions. The form of appreciation is an act of humanity, namely a matter of justice, a sense of belonging to one another, brotherly love, and human dignity in our relationship with nature. We call this pluralism model, in which each person/community has their own truth and tries to distance themselves from exclusive attitudes that lead to endless disputes.
According to the Church, a fact like this must be realized as an existing reality, but that does not mean stopping preaching the Gospel. On the other hand, for those who do not understand the truth of the Gospel, missionaries need to go out to proclaim the Gospel because this activity is the duty and sacred right of the Church to evangelize everyone (AG 7). Thus, the mission of evangelization gets an exclusive place; it is not easy to fall into pluralism alone and stick to the divine truth, which is centered on Christ and His mystery.
SOURCES
[1] Domenico Colombo, Another Gospel in Asia? On FABC Paper no. 62, October 1991. This year also, the issuance of Dialogue and Proclamation.
John Paul II. On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate (Redemptoris Missio). December 7, 1990.
Paul VI. On Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii Nuntiandi). December 8, 1975.
Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes Divinitus) (December 7, 1965).
