The Church starts reading from St. Luke Gospel with the scene at Nazareth when Jesus inaugurates his public ministry. He does so by quoting from Isaiah as his personal mission statement: He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. Tony Gittens, who taught missiology at CTU for many years, did an exercise which compared the mission statement in Luke with the end of St. Matthew’s gospel known as the great commission where Jesus instructs the nascent Church to preach, teach and baptize. Tony observed that this approach to mission is institutional, getting people to become part of the organization. While that is not a bad thing, in our anti-institutional era it might not be the most effective way to do mission. Why not, Tony suggested, adopt Jesus’ mission statement and make our efforts caring for the poor, the captives, the blind and oppressed. That could make the work of evangelization more attractive to modern people.
