Ad gentes EN
1 Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them "a universal sacrament of salvation,"(1) the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mc 16,16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men. The Apostles themselves, on whom the Church was founded, following in the footsteps of Christ, "preached the word of truth and begot churches."(2) It is the duty of their successors to make this task endure "so that the word of God may run and be glorified (2Th 3,1) and the kingdom of God be proclaimed and established throughout the world.
In the present state of affairs, out of which there is arising a new situation for mankind, the Church, being the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Mt 5,13-14), is more urgently called upon to save and renew every creature, that all things may be restored in Christ and all men may constitute one family in Him and one people of God.
Therefore, this sacred synod, while rendering thanks to God for the excellent results that have been achieved through the whole Church's great - hearted endeavor, desires to sketch the principles of missionary activity and to rally the forces of all the faithful in order that the people of God, marching along the narrow way of the Cross, may spread everywhere the reign of Christ, Lord and overseer: of the ages (cf. Si 36,19), and may prepare the way for his coming.
1. Dogmatic Constitution LG 48.
2. St. Augustine, "Exposition on Psalm 44," 23 (PL 36, 508; CChr 38, 510).
2 The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father.(1)
This decree, however, flows from the "fount - like love" or charity of God the Father who, being the "principle without principle" from whom the Son is begotten and Holy Spirit proceeds through the Son, freely creating us on account of His surpassing and merciful kindness and graciously calling us moreover to share with Him His life and His cry, has generously poured out, and does not cease to pour out still, His divine goodness. Thus He who created all things may at last be "all in all" (1Co 15,28), bringing about at one and the same time His own glory and our happiness. But it pleased God to call men to share His life, not just singly, apart from any mutual bond, but rather to mold them into a people in which His sons, once scattered abroad might be gathered together (cf. Jn 11,52).
1. Cf. Dogmatic constitution, LG 2.
3 This universal design of God for the salvation of the human race is carried out not only, as it were, secretly in the soul of a man, or by the attempts (even religious ones by which in diverse ways it seeks after God) if perchance it may contact Him or find Him, though He be not far from anyone of us (cf. Ac 17,27). For these attempts need to be enlightened and healed; even though, through the kindly workings of Divine Providence, they may sometimes serve as leading strings toward God, or as a preparation for the Gospel.(2) Now God, in order to establish peace or the communion of sinful human beings with Himself, as well as to fashion them into a fraternal community, did ordain to intervene in human history in a way both new and finally sending His Son, clothed in our flesh, in order that through Him He might snatch men from the power of darkness and Satan (cf. Col 1,13 Ac 10,38) and reconcile the world to Himself in Him (cf. 2Co 5,19). Him, then, by whom He made the world,(3) He appointed heir of all things, that in Him He might restore all (cf. Ep 1,10).
For Jesus Christ was sent into the world as a real mediator between God and men. Since He is God, all divine fullness dwells bodily in Him (Ga 2,9). According to His human nature, on the other hand, He is the new Adam, made head of a renewed humanity, and full of grace and of truth (Jn 1,14). Therefore the Son of God walked the ways of a true Incarnation that He might make men sharers in the nature of God: made poor for our sakes, though He had been rich, in order that His poverty might enrich us (2Co 8,9). The Son of Man came not that He might be served, but that He might be a servant, and give His life as a ransom for the many - that is, for all (cf. Mc 10,45). The Fathers of the Church proclaim without hesitation that what has not been taken up by Christ is not made whole.(4) Now, what He took up was our entire human nature such as it is found among us poor wretches, save only sin (cf. He 4,15 He 9 He 28). For Christ said concerning Himself, He whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world (cf. Jn 10,36): the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me; to bring good news to the poor He sent me, to heal the broken - hearted, to proclaim to the captives release, and sight to the blind" (Lc 4,18). And again: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost" (Lc 19,10).
But what the Lord preached that one time, or what was wrought in Him for the saving of the human race, must be spread abroad and published to the ends of the earth (Ac 1,8), beginning from Jerusalem (cf. Lc 24,47), so that what He accomplished at that one time for the salvation of all, may in the course of time come to achieve its effect in all.
2. Cf. St. Irenaeus, "Against Heretics," III, 18, 1: "The word existing in the presence of God, through whom all things were made, and who always is present to the human race..." (PG 7 932)- id. IV, 6, 7: "From the beginning even the Son, assisting at His own creation, reveals the Father to all to whom He wills, and when He wills, and insofar as the Father wills it." (ib. 990); cf. IV, 20, 6 and 7 (ib. 1037); Demonstration No. 34 (Eastern Fathers, XII, 773, "Sources Chretiennes," 62, Paris, 1958, p. 87)Clement of Alexandria, "Protrept." 112, 1 (GCS Clement I, 79), "Strom.' VI, 6, 44, 1 (GCS Clement II, 453); 13, 106, 3 and 4 (ib. 485). For the doctrine itself, cf. Pius XII, radio messages, Dec. 31, 1952; Dogmatic constitution LG 16.
3. Cf. He 1,2 Jn 1,3 Jn 1,10 1Co 8,6 Col 1,16.
4. Cf. St. Athanasius, "Letter to Epictetus," 7 (PG 26, 1060); St. Cyril of Jerusalem, "Catech." 4, 9 (PG 33, 465); Marius Victorinus, "Against Arius," 3, 3 (PL 8, 1101); St. Basil, Letter 26], 2 (PG 32, 969); St. Gregory Nazianzen, Letter 101 (PG 37, 181); St. Gregory of Nyssa, "Antirrheticus, Against Apollin.," 17 (PG 45, 1156); St. Ambrose Letter 48, 5 (PL 16, 1153); St. Augustine, "On John's Gospel" tract XXIII, 6 (PL 35, 1585; CChr 36, 236); above all in this way it is evident that the Holy Spirit has not redeemed us, since He has not become flesh: "On the Agony of Christ," 22, 24 (PL 40, 302); St. Cyril of Alexandria, "Against Nestorian," I, 1 (PG 76, 20); St. Fulgentius, Letter 17, 3, 5 (PL 65, 454); "Ad Trasimundum," III, 21 (PL 65, 284: on sorrow and fear).
4 To accomplish this, Christ sent from the Father His Holy Spirit, who was to carry on inwardly His saving work and prompt the Church to spread out. Doubtless, the Holy Spirit was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified.(5) Yet on the day of Pentecost, He came down upon the disciples to remain with them forever (cf. Jn 14,16). The Church was publicly displayed to the multitude, the Gospel began to spread among the nations by means of preaching, and there was presaged that union of all peoples in the catholicity of the faith by means of the Church of the New Covenant, a Church which speaks all tongues, understands and accepts all tongues in her love, and so supersedes the divisiveness of Babel.(6) For it was from Pentecost that the "Acts of the Apostles" took again, just as Christ was - conceived when the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and just as Christ was impelled to the work of His ministry by the same Holy Spirit descending upon Him while He prayed.(7)
Now, the Lord Jesus, before freely giving His life for the world, did so arrange the Apostles' ministry and promise to send the Holy Spirit that both they and the Spirit might be associated in effecting the work of salvation always and everywhere.(8) Throughout all ages, the Holy Spirit makes the entire Church "one in communion and in ministering; He equips her with various gifts of a hierarchical and charismatic nature," a giving life, soul - like, to ecclesiastical institutions(10) and instilling into the hearts of the faithful the same mission spirit which impelled Christ Himself. Sometimes He even visibly anticipates the Apostles' acting,(11) just as He unceasingly accompanies and directs it in different ways.(12)
5. It is the Spirit who has spoken through the Prophets; Creed of Constantinople (DS 150); St. Leo the Great, Sermon 76 (PL 54, 405-406). "When on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit filled the disciples of the Lord, it was not so much the beginning of a gift as it was the completion of one already bountifully possessed: because the patriarchs, the prophets, the priests and all the holy men who preceded them were already quickened by the life of the same Spirit. . . although they did not possess his gifts to the same degree." Also Sermon 77, 1, (PL 54 412)- Leo XIII, encyclical, "Divinum Illud" (AAS 1897, 650-651). Also St. John Chrysostom, where he insists on the newness of the Holy Spirit's mission on Pentecost; "On Eph." c. 4, Homily 10, 1 (PG 62, 75).
6. The Holy Fathers often speak of Babel and Pentecost; Origen, "On Genesis," c. 1 (PG 12, 112); St. Gregory Naz., Oration 41, 16 (PG 36, 449); St. John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Pentecost, 2 (PG 50, 467); "On the Acts of the Apostles" (PG, 44); St. Augustine, "Narration on Psalm 54," 11 (PL 36, 636; CChr 39, 664 ff.); Sermon 271 (PL 38, 1245); St. Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on Genesis II (PG 69, 79); St. Gregory the Great, "Homily on the Gospels," Book 2, Homily 30, 4 (PL 76, 1222); St. Bede, "On Hexaeum," Book 3 (PL 91, 125). See above all the images in St. Mark's basilica in Venice.
The Church speaks all languages, and thus gathers all in the catholicity of the faith: St. Augustine, Sermons 267, 268, 269 (PL 38, 1225,1237)- Sermon 175, 3 (PL 38 946); St. John Chrysostom, "On the First Epistle to the Corinthians," Homily 35 (PG 61, 296); St. Cyril of Alexandria, fragment on the Acts (PG 74, 758); St. Fulgentius, Sermon 8, 2-3 (PL 65, 743-744).
Concerning Pentecost as the consecration of the Apostles to their mission, cf. J.A. Cramer, "Catena on the Acts of the Apostles," Oxford, 1838, p. 24 ff.
7. Cf. Lc 3,22 Lc 4,1 Ac 10,38.
8. Cf. Jn 14-17; Paul VI, allocution during the council, Sept. 14, 1964 (AAS 1964, 807).
9. Cf. Dogmatic constitution LG 4.
10. St. Augustine, Sermo 267, 4 (PL 38, 1231): "The Holy Spirit does in the whole Church what the soul does in all the members of one body." Cf. Const. Dogm. LG 7 (together with note 8).
11. Cf. Ac 10,44-47 Ac 11,15 Ac 15,8.
12. Cf. Ac 4,8 Ac 5,32; etc.
5 From the very beginning, the Lord Jesus "called to Himself those whom He wished; and He caused twelve of them to be with Him, and to be sent out preaching (Mc 3,13 cf. Mt 10,1-42). Thus the Apostles were the first budding - forth of the New Israel, and at the same time the beginning of the sacred hierarchy. Then, when He had by His death and His resurrection completed once for all in Himself the mysteries of our salvation and the renewal of all things, the Lord, having now received all power in heaven and on earth (cf. Mt 28,18), before He was taken up into heaven (cf. Ac 1,11), founded His Church as the sacrament of salvation and sent His Apostles into all the world just as He Himself had been sent by His Father (cf. Jn 20,21), commanding them: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of a nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28,19 ff.). "Go into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe, shall be condemned" (Mc 16,15ff.). Whence the duty that lies on the Church of spreading the faith and the salvation of Christ, not only in virtue of the express command which was inherited from the Apostles by the order of bishops, assisted by the priests, together with the successor of Peter and supreme shepherd of the Church, but also in virtue of that life which flows from Christ into His members; "From Him the whole body, being closely joined and knit together through every joint of the system, according to the functioning in due measure of each single part, derives its increase to the building up of itself in love" (Ep 4,16). The mission of the Church, therefore, is fulfilled by that activity which makes her, obeying the command of Christ and influenced by the grace and love of the Holy Spirit, fully present to all men or nations, in order that, by the example of her life and by her preaching, by the sacraments and other means of grace, she may lead them to the faith, the freedom and the peace of Christ; that thus there may lie open before them a firm and free road to full participation in the mystery of Christ.
Since this mission goes on and in the course of history unfolds the mission of Christ Himself, who was sent to preach the Gospel to the poor, the Church, prompted by the Holy Spirit, must walk in the same path on which Christ walked: a path of poverty and obedience, of service and self - sacrifice to the death, from which death He came forth a victor by His resurrection. For thus did all the Apostles walk in hope, and by many trials and sufferings they filled up those things wanting to the Passion of Christ for His body which is the Church (cf. Col 1,24). For often, the blood of Christians was like a seed.(13)
13. Tertullian, "Apologeticum," 50, 13 (PL 1, 534; CChr. 1, 171.
6 This duty, to be fulfilled by the order of bishops, under the successor of Peter and with the prayers and help of the whole Church, is one and the same everywhere and in every condition, even though it may be carried out differently according to circumstances. Hence, the differences recognizable in this, the Church's activity, are not due to the inner nature of the mission itself, but rather to the circumstances in which this mission is exercised.
These circumstances in turn depend sometimes on the Church, sometimes on the peoples or groups or men to whom the mission is directed. For the Church, although of itself including the totality or fullness of the means of salvation, does not and cannot always and instantly bring them all into action. Rather, she experiences beginnings and degrees in that action by which she strives to make God's plan a reality. In fact, there are times when, after a happy beginning, she must again lament a setback, or at least must linger in a certain state of unfinished insufficiency. As for the men, groups and peoples concerned, only by degrees does she touch and pervade them, and thus take them up into full catholicity. The right sort of means and actions must be suited to any state or situation.
"Missions" is the term usually given to those particular undertakings by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ. These undertakings are brought to completion by missionary activity and are mostly exercised in certain territories recognized by the Holy See. The proper purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization, and the planting of the Church among those peoples and groups where it has not yet taken root.(14) Thus from the seed which is the word of God, particular autochthonous churches should be sufficiently established and should grow up all over the world, endowed with their own maturity and vital forces. Under a hierarchy of their own, together with the faithful people, and adequately fitted out with requisites for living a full Christian life, they should make their contribution to the good of the whole Church. The chief means of the planting referred to is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To preach this Gospel the Lord sent forth His disciples into the whole world, that being reborn by the word of God (cf. 1P 1,23), men might be joined to the Church through baptism - that Church which, as the body of the Word Incarnate, is nourished and lives by the word of God and by the eucharistic bread (cf. Ac 2,43).
In this missionary activity of the Church various stages sometimes are found side by side: first, that of the beginning or planting, then that of newness or youth. When these have passed, the Church's missionary activity does not cease, but there lies upon the particular churches already set up the duty of continuing this activity and of preaching the Gospel to those still outside.
Moreover, the groups among which the Church dwells are often radically changed, for one reason or other, so that an entirely new set of circumstances may arise. Then the Church must deliberate whether these conditions might again call for her missionary activity. Besides, circumstances are sometimes such that, for the time being, there is no possibility of expounding the Gospel directly and forthwith. Then, of course, missionaries can and must at least bear witness to Christ by charity and by works of mercy, with all patience, prudence and great confidence. Thus they will prepare the way for the Lord and make Him somehow present.
Thus it is plain that missionary activity wells up from the Church's inner nature and spreads abroad her saving Faith. It perfects her Catholic unity by this expansion. It is sustained by her apostolicity. It exercises the collegial spirit of her hierarchy. It bears witness to her sanctity while spreading and promoting it. Thus, missionary activity among the nations differs from pastoral activity exercised among the faithful as well as from undertakings aimed at restoring unity among Christians. And yet these two ends are most closely connected with the missionary zeal(15) because the division among Christians damages the most holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature(16) and blocks the way to the faith for many. Hence, by the very necessity of mission, all the baptized are called to gather into one flock, and thus they will be able to bear unanimous witness before the nations to Christ their Lord. And if they are not yet capable of bearing witness to the same faith, they should at least be animated by mutual love and esteem.
14. Already St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the apostolic duty of "planting" the Church; cf. "Sent." Book I, Dist. 16, q. 1, 2 ad 2 and ad 4 a. 3 sol., "Summa Theol." I 43,7 ad 6, I-II 106,4 ad 4. Cf. Benedict XV, "Maximum Illud" Nov. 30, 1919 (AAS 1919, 445 and 453); Pius XI, "Rerum Ecclesiae," Feb. 28, 1926 (AAS 1926, 74); Pius XII, April 30, 1939, to the directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies; id., June 24, 1944, to the directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies (AAS 1944, 210, again in AAS 1950, 727, and 1951 508), id., June 29, 1948, to the native clergy (AAS 1948, 374); id., "Evangelii Praecones," June 2, 1951 (AAS 1951, 507); id., "Fidei Donum," Jan. 15, 1957 (AAS 1957, 236); John XXIII, "Princeps Pastorum," Nov. 28, 1959 (AAS, 1959, 835), Paul VI, homily Oct. 18, 1964 (AAS 1964, 911).
Both the supreme pontiffs and the Fathers and scholastics have spoken of the expansion of the Church: St. Thomas Aquinas, commentary on Mt 16,28; Leo XIII, encyclical "Sancta Dei Civitas" (AAS, 1880, 241); Benedict XV, encyclical, "Maximum Illud" (AAS 1919, 442); Pius XI, encyclical, "Rerum Ecclesiae" (AAS, 1926, 65).
15. In this notion of missionary activity, as is evident, according to the circumstances, even those parts of Latin America are included in which there is neither a hierarchy proper to the region, nor maturity of Christian life, nor sufficient preaching of the Gospel. Whether or not such territory de facto is recognized as missionary by the Holy See does not depend on this council. Therefore, regarding the connection between the notion of missionary activity and a certain territory, it is wise to say that this activity "in the majority of cases" is exercised in certain territories recognized by the Holy See.
16. Decree UR 1.
7 This missionary activity derives its reason from the will of God, "who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, Himself a man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1Tm 2,45), "neither is there salvation in any other" (Ac 4,12). Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mc 16,16 Jn 3,5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it."(17) Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (He 11,6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1Co 9,16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity.
By means of this activity, the Mystical Body of Christ unceasingly gathers and directs its forces toward its own growth (cf. Ep 4,11-16). The members of the Church are impelled to carry on such missionary activity by reason of the love with which they love God and by which they desire to share with all men the spiritual goods of both its life and the life to come.
Finally, by means of this missionary activity, God is fully glorified, provided that men fully and consciously accept His work of salvation, which He has accomplished in Christ. In this way and by this means, the plan of God is fulfilled - that plan to which Christ conformed with loving obedience for the glory of the Father who sent Him,(18) that the whole human race might form one people of God and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit which, being the expression of brotherly harmony, corresponds with the inmost wishes of all men. And so at last, there will be realized the plan of our Creator who formed man to His own image and likeness, when all who share one human nature, regenerated in Christ through the Holy Spirit and beholding the glory of God, will be able to say with one accord: "Our Father."(19)
17. Cf. Dogmatic constitution, LG 14.
18. Cf. Jn 7,18 Jn 8,30 Jn 8,44 Jn 8,50 Jn 17,1.
19. On this synthetic idea, see the teaching of St. Irenaeus de Recaptiulatione. Cf. also Hippolytus, De Antichristo, 3: "Wishing all, and desiring to save all, wishing all the excellence of God's children and calling all the saints in one perfect man. . . " (PG 10, 732; GCS Hippolyt I 2 p. 6); Benedictiones Iacob, 7 (T.U., 38-1 p. 18, 1 in 4 ss.), Origen, In Ioann. Tom. I, n. 16: "Then there will be one action of knowing God on the part of all those who have attained to God, under the leadership of the Word who is with God, that thus all sons may be correctly instructed in the knowledge of the Father, as now only the Son knows the Father." (PG 14, 49, GCS Orig. IV 20)- St. Augustine, De Sermone Domini in monte, I 41; "Let us love what can lead us to that kingdom where no one says, 'My Father,' but all say to the one God: 'Our Father'." (PL 34, 1250), St. Cyril Alex. In Joann. I: "For we are all in Christ, and the common person of humanity comes back to life in him. That is why he is also called the New Adam.... For he dwelt among us, who by nature is the Son of God; and therefore in his Spirit we cry out: Abba, Father But the Word dwells in all, in one temple, namely that which he assumed for us and from us, that having us, ail in himself, he might say, as Paul says, reconcile all in one body to the Father" (PG 73, 161-164).
8 Missionary activity is closely bound up even with human nature itself and its aspirations. For by manifesting Christ the Church reveals to men the real truth about their condition and their whole calling, since Christ is the source and model of that redeemed humanity, imbued with brotherly love, sincerity and a peaceful spirit, to which they all aspire. Christ and the Church, which bears witness to Him by preaching the Gospel, transcend every peculiarity of race or nation and therefore cannot be considered foreign anywhere or to anybody.(20) Christ Himself is the way and the truth, which the preaching of the Gospel opens to all in proclaiming in the hearing of all these words of Christ: "Repent, and believe the Gospel" (Mc 1,15). Now, since he who does not believe is already judged (cf. Jn 3,18), the words of Christ are at one and the same time words of judgment and of grace, of death and of life. For it is only by putting to death what is old that we are able to approach the newness of life. This is true first of all about persons, but it holds also for the various goods of this world which bear the mark both of man's sin and of God's blessing: "For all have sinned and have need of the glory of God" (Rm 3,23). No one is freed from sin by himself and by his own power, no one is raised above himself, no one is completely rid of his sickness or his solitude or his servitude.(21) On the contrary, all stand in need of Christ, their model, their mentor, their liberator, their Savior, their source of life. The Gospel has truly been a leaven of liberty and progress in human history, even in the temporal sphere, and always proves itself a leaven of brotherhood, of unity and of peace. Not without cause is Christ hailed by the faithful as "the expected of the nations, and their Savior."(22)
20. Benedict XV, Maximum Illud (AAS 1919, 445): "For as the Church of God is Catholic and is foreign to no people or nation..." Cf. John XXIII, Mater et Magistra: "By divine right the Church belongs to all nations . . . since she has as it were transfused her energy into the veins of a people, she neither is nor considers herself an institution imposed on that people from without.... And hence whatever seems to her good and noble that they confirm and perfect" (namely those reborn in Christ) (AAS 1961, 444).
21. Cf. Iraeneus, "Against Heretics" III, 15, n. 3 (PG 7, 919): "They were preachers of truth and apostles of liberty."
22. Antiphon O for Dec. 23.
9 And so the time for missionary activity extends between the first coming of the Lord and the second, in which latter the Church will be gathered from the four winds like a harvest into the kingdom of God.(23) For the Gospel must be preached to all nations before the Lord shall come (cf. Mc 13,10).
Missionary activity is nothing else and nothing less than an epiphany, or a manifesting of God's decree, and its fulfillment in the world and in world history, in the course of which God, by means of mission, manifestly works out the history of salvation. By the preaching of the word and by the celebration of the sacraments, the center and summit of which is the most holy Eucharist, He brings about the presence of Christ, the author of salvation. But whatever truth and grace are to be found among the nations, as a sort of secret presence of God, He frees from all taint of evil and restores to Christ its maker, who overthrows the devil's domain and wards off the manifold malice of vice. And so, whatever good is found to be sown in the hearts and minds of men, or in the rites and cultures peculiar to various peoples, not only is not lost, but is healed, uplifted, and perfected for the glory of God, the shame of the demon, and the bliss of men.(24) Thus, missionary activity tends toward eschatological fullness.(25) For by it the people of God is increased to that measure and time which the Father has fixed in His power(cf. Ac 1,7). To this people it was said in prophecy: "Enlarge the space for your tent, and spread out your tent cloths unsparingly" (Is 54,2).(26) By missionary activity, the mystical body grows to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ (cf. Ep 4,13); and the spiritual temple, where God is adored in spirit and in truth (cf. Jn 4,23), grows and is built up upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the supreme corner stone (Ep 2,20).
23. Cf. Mt 24,31, Didache, 10, 5 (Funk I, p. 32).
24. Dogmatic constitution, LG 17. St. Augustine 7, "City of God," 1917 (PL 41, 646). Instr. S.C.P.F. (Collectanea I, n. 35, p. 42).
25. According to Origen, the Gospel must be preached before the end of this world: Homily on Luke XXI (GCS, Origen IX, 136, 21 ff.); "Comm. Ser. On Matthew" 39 (XI 75, 25 ff; 76, 4 ff.); Homily on Jeremiah III, 2 (VIII 308, 29 ff.), St. Thomas I-II 106,4, ad 4.
26. Hilary Pict. "On the Psalms" 14 (PL 9, 301); Eusebius of Caesarea, "On Isaiah" 54, 2-3 (PG 24, 462-463), Cyril of Alexandria, "On Isaiah V, " chapter 54 1-3 (PG 70, 1193).
10 The Church, sent by Christ to reveal and to communicate the love of God to all men and nations, is aware that there still remains a gigantic missionary task for her to accomplish. For the Gospel message has not yet, or hardly yet, been heard by two million human beings (and their number is increasing daily), who are formed into large and distinct groups by permanent cultural ties, by ancient religious traditions, and by firm bonds of social necessity. Some of these men are followers of one of the great religions, but others remain strangers to the very knowledge of God, while still others expressly deny His existence, and sometimes even attack it. The Church, in order to be able to offer all of them the mystery of salvation and the life brought by God, must implant herself into these groups for the same motive which led Christ to bind Himself, in virtue of His Incarnation, to certain social and cultural conditions of those human beings among whom He dwelt.
11 The Church must be present in these groups through her children, who dwell among them or who are sent to them. For all Christians, wherever they live, are bound to show forth, by the example of their lives and by the witness of the word, that new man put on at baptism and that power of the Holy Spirit by which they have been strengthened at Conformation. Thus other men, observing their good works, can glorify the Father (cf. Mt 5,16) and can perceive more fully the real meaning of human life and the universal bond of the community of mankind.
In order that they may be able to bear more fruitful witness to Christ, let them be joined to those men by esteem and love; let them acknowledge themselves to be members of the group of men among whom they live; let them share in cultural and social life by the various. undertakings and enterprises of human living; let them be familiar with their national and religious traditions; let them gladly and reverently lay bare the seeds of the Word which lie hidden among their fellows. At the same time, however, let them look to the: profound changes which are taking place among nations, and let them exert themselves to keep modern man, intent as he is on the science and technology of today's world from becoming a stranger to things divine; rather, let them awaken in him a yearning for that truth and:charity which God has revealed. Even as Christ Himself searched the hearts of men, and led them to divine light, so also His disciples, profoundly penetrated by the Spirit of Christ, should show the people among whom they live, and should converse with them, that they themselves may learn by sincere and patient dialogue what treasures a generous God has distributed among the nations of the earth. But at the same time, let them try to furbish these treasures, set them free, and bring them under the dominion of God their Savior.
Ad gentes EN