Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

The mission belongs to God

byStaff writers
12 May 2013
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Divine Word Missionary Professor Stephen Bevans led participants at a recent mission conference in Sydney to reflect on how the Church is called to be partners in God’s mission and how Jesus is the model for it to choose. DEBRA VERMEER reports

THE amazing grace of mission is that it involves participating in the work of the Trinity, making us partners in mission with God, visiting missiologist and Divine Word Missionary Professor Stephen Bevans told a mission conference in Sydney.

Prof Bevans was speaking at the “Mission: One heart, many voices” conference, a gathering of more than 250 people engaged in God’s mission from across the Church community.

He is the Louis J. Luzbetak SVD (Divine Word Missionary), Professor of Mission and Culture at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union and a renowned teacher and author on mission.

As an SVD missionary he worked for nine years (1972-81) in the Philippines.

“The mission is not ours, it is God’s,” he told the conference. God’s mission calls forth the Church.

And God’s mission is wider than the Church. Our task is to point out where God is already active.”

Prof Bevans said he wished to take that idea further and to suggest that “we are more important than just being subordinate to God in mission”.

“I think the amazing thing is that God has called us to be partners in that mission,” he said.

“Just as the Spirit was lavished on Jesus, so that same spirit is lavished on us.”

Related Stories

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

Prof Bevans said God’s model for mission was revealed in Jesus.

“Jesus reveals in his own practice the practice of God,” he said.

“Jesus proclaims God’s message of acceptance, forgiveness, reconciliation, inclusion and commitment to the poor.”

At Pentecost the disciples began to realise that the mission of Jesus was now given to them and gradually they came to understand that the Gospel was for all people.

“So it was in realising that they had been invested with God’s mission and practice that they understood themselves as Church.

The Church is missionary by its very nature.”

If we accepted we are made in the image of God, then it followed that we were given the same mission as God has, Prof Bevans said.

“So we’re not second fiddle to God in mission, we’re partners,” he said.

Prof Bevans said partnership was the basic practice of the Trinity and the whole point of the incarnation.

“God needs us. We are the way that God’s work gets done,” he said.

“God treats us as equals, as partners.

“Our task is to have the openness, the humility and the availability modelled by Mary so that we can live up to the task of being partners in God’s mission.

“This is the amazing grace of mission. It’s participating in the work of the Trinity.”

In a second presentation, Prof Bevans expanded on how the Church can be missionary in secularised societies such as Australia and the United States, especially in the context of the New Evangelisation, or outreach to Catholics who no longer practise their faith.

“Basically, we need to cultivate a fundamental stance of openness, respect, friendship, deep listening and vulnerability,” he said.

“I think we need a spirituality more than a strategy.

How we do mission is ultimately more important than what we do.”

Prof Bevans recalled Pope Francis in his inauguration homily calling for the Church not to be afraid of tenderness and said such a tenderness could chart the path forward for mission.

“Given the lack of credibility of the Church today, and given the hope that the New Evangelisation holds, I think a tender Church would be wonderful good news indeed,” he said.

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

What is the value of human life

Next Post

Beyond the heavy heart – A Pentecost Letter to Young People

Staff writers

Related Posts

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies
QLD

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

20 May 2022
Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition
QLD

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

20 May 2022
Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Next Post

Beyond the heavy heart - A Pentecost Letter to Young People

Future leaders inspired to succeed

Men ponder God's calling

Popular News

  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Queensland election: The pro-life political parties committed to abortion law reforms

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies
QLD

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

by Joe Higgins
20 May 2022
0

BRISBANE grandmother Gwendoline Grant has clocked up 15,000 hours cuddling and caring for sick and premature babies...

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

20 May 2022
Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping