You hear things like “We’ve got to grow the Church.” Someone cites statistics about the number of Catholics who have “fallen away.” A grandmother complains that her family no longer practices. All of which should make us ask, why is Christianity a missionary religion? Why do we seek to spread the faith? We aren’t just trying to get people on our team or to create a tribe of our own. No, we invite people into the Church in imitation of Jesus whose “heart was moved with pity” when he saw the crowd. Humanity is starving for what we possess in faith — a clear identity as children of God, a mandate for this world to be a place of justice and peace, and an eternal destiny.