More than fifty years ago Cardinal Avery Dulles wrote an influential book entitled Models of the Church. He proposed that there are different ways of thinking about the church which tend to shape how we live out our faith. For example, one of the models is “the Church as Servant” which suggests that caring for the needs of a hurting world should have a priority for Christians. Jesus, of course, as the founder lived before there was a Church but the gospel suggests that if you asked him for his model of the Church he would have said, “the Church is a mission.” He came on a mission from God. He sent out the twelve on mission. When that wasn’t sufficient he upped the ante: The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. In Jesus’ model we can’t wait for people to come to us, we must go out to them. This way of operating seems particularly necessary in our time. Many Catholics have fallen away from the practice of the faith. Instead of waiting for them to return we must go out to them because faith in Christ will fill up the spiritual hunger that they feel in their souls.
