"Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” John 20:21 RSV
The first form of witness is
the very life of the missionary, of the
Christian family, and
of the ecclesial community, which reveal a new
way of living. The missionary who, despite all his or her human limitations and
defects, lives a simple life, taking
Christ as the model, is a sign of
God and
of transcendent realities. But everyone in the
Church, striving to imitate Jesus, can and must bear this kind of witness;
in many cases it
is the only possible way of being a missionary.
Sometimes even the apostolic desire for a ready passport into secular society
and the determination to make oneself acceptable to people and particularly to the
youth of today, prompts certain people to lay aside the principles which
characterize our faith and to reject the sort of dignity which gives meaning and
force to our determination to make contact with others and makes our teaching
effective. Is it not, perhaps, true that some of the younger clergy and
religious, in their laudable endeavor to come closer to the masses and to
particular groups, aim at becoming like them rather than different from them? By
this worthless imitation they forfeit the real value and effectiveness of their
endeavors.
