Missionary spirituality is rooted in the very essence of evangelization. Like Christ, who detached himself from the traditional line of Jewish thought, a missionary must detach himself from his own messages, his needs and even his ideologies. He does not have a message of his own but he is the emissary of the message received with a missionary mandate. Like Jesus, a missionary is an envoy on the move with a dual direction: a pilgrimage into the depths of his personal mystery and one into the many faceted reality of the people to whom he is sent. Both in himself and in the peoples, he must implant the kingdom which is not his but God’s. The missionary must give importance not to the institutions and structures alone but also to each and every individual person.

The missionary spirituality is totally based on the Self-emptying spirituality of Jesus Christ who became man through the incarnation. The incarnation shows the depth of God’s involvement. This lies in God’s solidarity, in Jesus Christ’s identification with the human condition, and with its problems, deepest longings, suffering and failure. In other words, “Jesus chose to empty himself of Adam’s glory and to embrace Adam’s lot, the fate which Adam had suffered by way of punishment. The New Testament makes a clear reference not ‘as a man’, but ‘as man,’- that is one with fallen man, Adam.”1 As Adam became a slave due to his fall, Jesus too became a slave to save men from the enslavement of sin and death. The self-abasement of Jesus Christ would imply not only assuming the human propensity to corruption and submission to powers, but also to an acceptance of death, for Adam’s sin that brought enslavement into the world. In this regard, Jesus freely chose to embrace the death that Adam experienced as punishment.2

The missionary spirituality is one among the various schools of Christian spirituality. It is the specific vocation received, accepted and joyfully lived by the Christian, imitating Jesus the missionary in prayer, apostolate, self-renunciation and asceticism proper to the missionary life and discipleship. It is not restricted to priests and religious, but open to all Christians.3 In short, Missionary spirituality consists in one’s total association with Jesus Christ, the Missionary and to follow him closely in all aspects of life. The salient features of missionary spirituality of Redemptoris Missio can be grouped into five: 1. Holiness for missionary spirituality; 2. Missionaries are led by the Holy Spirit; 3. Missionaries have to be men/women of prayer and contemplation; 4.Living the mystery of Christ; and 5. Suffering in the mission of Christ.

2.1. A Missionary - A Man of Holiness

Holiness is the most perfect reflection of God in man. Pope John Paul II in RM 90 says: “The call to holiness is closely linked to the universal call to mission. Every member of the faithful is called to holiness.” The call to holiness is based on the fact that God himself is holy. Since God is holy, he invites all His people to be holy, for it is said: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1Pet 1: 15-16).

Holiness is required for fellowship with God. (Ps 15:1), (Heb 12:14), (Eph 1:4). Sin is an obstacle to have fellowship with God; an obstacle encountered when one goes against the love of God and neighbor. Vatican II speaks of love as the only way to holiness before it considers the traditional means, chastity, poverty and obedience (LG 42). This shows how central the Council considered the place of love in our striving for union with God. The traditional means to holiness, that is the evangelical counsels, are meaningful and relevant only when they are exercised within the context of and in love. St. Paul, the greatest missionary of the first century had given the central role of love in one’s journey to holiness. He wrote a beautiful hymn of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

2.2 A Missionary – A Person led by the Holy Spirit

Love is the way to holiness and “Love is first fruit of the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5:22). Evangelization will never be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary without any intervention of man, as J. B. Shelton observes: “the Holy Spirit is responsible for the conception of Jesus. Thus, Jesus is Holy. In addition, because of the Holy Spirit’s activity, Jesus is called the Son of God.”4 The Holy Spirit was promised to the disciples by Jesus in order to teach them and remind them of what they have to do: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” (Jn 14:15). Thus love and the Holy Spirit, holiness and evangelization are interrelated. Word who took flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The universal reality of the spirit’s presence reaches into all creation. At the beginning of time, God gifted creation with the Spirit, and in the fullness of time, God gifted creation with the Son, sent, “not in opposition, but in unity, not in subordination, but in complementarity.”5 It is the Holy Spirit who gives power and strength to the missionary to proclaim the Gospel and to become a witness to the Gospel. Proclamation and life-witness must go together. It is by sharing the Gospel of Christ in and through proclamation and life-witness, that one’s faith and commitment to Christ are strengthened.

2.3. A Missionary – A Man of Prayer and Contemplation

It is the Holy Spirit who led Jesus to the desert (Mt 4:1-11) for prayer and deep contemplation. As Jesus was a man of prayer and contemplation his disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray” (Lk 11:1).Following the example of Jesus Christ and realizing the importance of prayer in their missionary work, the apostles said, “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). Therefore, a missionary has to be a man or woman of prayer. Their prayer has a double dimension: to know God’s will (where to go) and to do his will (to preach the Gospel).

It is only through prayer and contemplation that a missionary can discern the mystery of God’s ways in Non-Christian religions and bring these ways to Christ for fulfillment. By doing this, through prayer and discernment, the missionary becomes a living mystery of Jesus Christ to the people of other faiths.

2.4 A Missionary – A Living Mystery of Christ

It is the Holy Spirit who instills in the hearts of missionaries, love for Christ and thirst for the mission. The Holy Spirit helps the missionaries to long for an intimate union with Christ. The missionary derives his strength and courage for his missionary task only from his intimate and personal union with Christ. It is this that makes him an effective instrument of the Gospel of love. The French philosopher and mathematician, Blasie Pascal, while writing about his personal experience with Jesus Christ wrote in his Penseés: “Not only do we know God only through Jesus Christ, but also we know ourselves only through Jesus Christ. We do not know life and death except through Jesus Christ. Outside Jesus Christ we do not know what our life is or our death, we do not know God or ourselves. For this reason, except for Scriptures, the object of which is Jesus Christ alone, we know nothing and see nothing but darkness and confusion in the nature of God and in our own nature.”6

A missionary is called to know and love Christ throughout his life. The earnest love and commitment towards Christ made the early Christian missionaries revolve around Jesus Christ.

2.5 A Missionary- A Suffering Servant of Christ

The missionary is sent by Christ to proclaim God’s love to peoples of this world. The close association of the missionary with Christ will lead him to walk through the narrow door. The missionary will have to face many difficulties during his ministry among his people. It is in facing these difficulties that the he shares in the sufferings of Christ. To share in the sufferings of Christ is to share in his cross. To suffer in loving union with Christ is to be an apostle, a missionary, and an active labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.7 Jesus’ life stood from its inception under the shadow of the cross. His self-emptying began at his birth. Gandhi, purified through the suffering, saw this link perhaps better than many Christians. In his Christmas day message of 1931 he said: “And so, as the miraculous birth is an eternal event, so is the cross an eternal event in this stormy life. Therefore, we dare not think of birth without death on the cross. Living Christ means a living cross, without it life is a living death.”8 Since suffering and rejection, cross and crucifixion gains a paramount importance in the life of a missionary, he has to follow the self-emptying salt-light missionary spirituality which would help him to go forward with the same missionary zeal of the early apostles.

The Lord of creation said: “Let there be light and there was light” (Gen 1:3). John says, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (Jn 1: 9). Believers in Christ through their faith and baptism become “sons of the light” (Col 1:12). They have been so cleansed and transformed by the power of the heavenly light that they are the light of the world: “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14).9 When Christ says to his followers that they are the light of the world, it means: “He, Jesus, had come to shed light that men might see God through him; and they, his followers, were to shine for his sake. Thus, God would appear, not as a frowning deity, but as a holy Father with whom all men, both Christians and non-Christians may be at home in the spirit of Jesus.”10

Jesus said to his disciples, “you are the salt of this earth” (Mt 5:13). He did not mean this literally, but just as salt gives flavour to food, so Christians were to give ‘flavour’ to society in general. Also, salt preserves food and so too Christians were to preserve the faith from corruption. Thus, while the light focuses on the point of the importance of the witness of life, the salt highlights the quality of the self-emptying nature of a Christian in society. The new paradigm of salt-light missionary spirituality has four aspects, namely, spirituality of presence (darsana), Kenotic spirituality (ahimsâ), spirituality of reconciliation and harmony (Rita) and holistic spirituality (Dharma).

3.1 Spirituality of Presence – Darsana

The human person was created from the stuff of this creation (Gen 2:7), and man being created in the image of God becomes the crown of creation (Gen 1:26) in so far as a human person serves as the bridge between God and the rest of creation (Chandogya Upanishads 8.4.1). The Upanishadic teaching that âtman is Brahman is affirming the pontifical role of the human person: the role being a bridge between God and his creation, between Brahman and brahman.11 Thus, the human person is the embodiment of God’s presence. A Christian has to be a sign of the presence of the risen Christ to all people.

This spirituality of presence is all the more necessary and the mission work performed through it all the more effective in those parts of the world, especially in India, where an explicit proclamation of Jesus is forbidden and religious freedom is restricted or denied. This ‘silent witness of life,’ rooted in the experience of God, when it is accompanied by a life-style characterized by ‘renunciation, detachment, humility, simplicity and silence’ and by ‘the works of justice, charity and compassion,’ will become the most appropriate method of mission.

Only those who are ready to live as pilgrims on this earth can live out the spirituality of presence in totality. A pilgrim is one who trusts in the providence of God and is ready to accept other people as co-pilgrims. The spirituality of presence itself is both the spirituality of pilgrimage and a spirituality of dialogue. The Christian sannyasa in India might include in itself the three aspects of the spirituality of presence, pilgrimage and dialogue. A Christian missionary who has adapted the lifestyle of sannyasa can serve as a sign of Christ’s presence in the midst of fundamentalist conflicts and communal violence.

3.2. Kenotic Spirituality – Ahimsâ

Indian people believe that the missionaries are persons who have enormous power and wealth, who can alleviate their poverty and suffering. This mentality of power and superiority of the missionary is contrary to the Gospel message and life of Jesus Christ who came ‘to serve and not to be served.’ The attitude of humility is intrinsic to an authentic Christian faith. And, after all, it is when we are weak that we are strong. The aspect of humility means that the Good News is not something owned by the missionary. “Thus, the Indian missionary will not, or ought not, share the faith as if he or she owned it. Dictating thereby the terms by which it must be understood, lived and celebrated. His or her approach to mission will be to share the faith as a gift received from God through others, conscious of himself or herself as merely its steward or servant and never its owner or master.”12 The missionary has to go to the mission field literally with empty hands. This kenotic missionary spirituality of empty-handedness is a pre-requisite condition to participate in the self-emptying mission of Christ.

The missionary has to follow the virtue of ahimsâ or self-sacrificing love in the mission field wherein he or she is received both as strangers and as guests. For Ghandhi, Ahimsâ is a compassionate attitude of ‘good will towards all life’ that ‘embrace even sub-human life’ in pure love. A missionary being the seeker of Truth with love for all His creatures pushes himself or herself to the periphery and accepts his or her status wherein they are no longer primary movers but collaborators and assistants. Kenotic spirituality also requires that as a guest the missionary be a gracious and grateful receiver. The missionary being a sign of the humble Christ must bear witness to Christ’s self-emptying love and offer, rather than impose, God’s gifts to all people in gratitude and humility.

3.3. Spirituality of Reconciliation and Harmony-Rita

In the Indian cultural tradition, there is a perspective of holism and harmony that accepts and respects difference and looks upon pluralism as God’s gift to the world. Harmony is achieved at four levels: the personal, the social, the cosmological, and the theological.

This spirituality of harmony will shape human life as an unfolding of right relationships: ‘Starting from consciousness of the God-given harmony within oneself, one moves into harmonious relationship with one’s fellow humans; then one spreads out to be in harmony with nature and the wider universe. This unfolding and realization of right relationship within oneself, with the neighbors and the cosmos leads to the summit experience of harmony with God.’13 Such harmony in life, community, and cosmos can be achieved only through collaboration and dialogue. Here the dialogue does not refer to interreligious dialogue but a way of life, which is a way of acknowledging and accepting the other’s identity shown in the readiness to listen, to change, and to collaborate.

Harmony and reconciliation must be seen as part of Christian mission (2Cor 5:18-19) based on the Christian redeeming narrative of Jesus of Nazareth. The ministry of reconciliation must have its own spirituality that consists in cultivating an attitude of ‘listening and waiting’. This spirituality of reconciliation calls for an active commitment to peacemaking as individuals, as Church, and in collaboration with the people of other faiths. The missionary being a lover of harmony and unity needs to be a sign of Christ’s reconciliation in bringing the truths of all religions to Christ for purification, sanctification and salvation.

3.4 Holistic Spirituality-Dharma

The spirituality of the Bible is universal and holistic. Holistic spirituality merges from nature and is nourished by it and aims at and offers all-round health and well-being to all that is in this earth.14 Holistic spirituality is possible in an atmosphere of conversion from self-centeredness to an other-centered life that is a movement ‘from egological to integral consciousness’(both human beings and the whole creation). It is a realization of one’s mystical union with God and with the environment, an interior solidarity with nature. Christian mysticism is in the earth, in the world and in the flesh: Authentic Christian mystics are notoriously earthy. They love the earth and take good care of it… They recognize how sacramental the earth is. In this they resemble the North American Indian. They enjoy the earth and find their delight in it, without being inordinately attached to it…. They see everything as a sign, sample or symbol of God and therefore affirm the totality of being.15

Since Jesus Christ believed that God is present in every created reality, he died for the salvation of men and for the whole of the creation, which is ‘groaning together’ (Rom 8:22) for the redemption of Christ. The new order, ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ which is a Semitic way of describing the whole creation, has a cosmic dimension and includes all material, vegetative and animal creation, since God makes ‘all things new’ (Rev 21:5). It is in Christ that all things will become new and a new race will emerge like that of the early Christians.

The inculturation of the Indian missionary should make him one with the people. Like Jesus who recognized the goodness of the Samaritan and acknowledged the strong faith of the Canaanite woman, the Indian missionary needs to recognize and appreciate the goodness in other religions. The missionary has to be like Christ in all things. It is here that we see the transcendent characteristics of Christ who did not supress any thing good since he knew that everything that is good comes from God. Christ is the Word made flesh (God), redeemer and risen.

4.1 A Missionary-A Living Witness to the Transcendence of Christ as Light

The missionary is sent out with the power of the Risen Christ to be a witness to the Kingdom of God. The core of Gospel teaching is love of God and neighbor, for love is the fulfillment of the law. The missionary, first of all, needs to be a person who loves God, all human persons and all beings in this world. Since the missionary has to be a person-in-love with all persons and all beings of this earth, his or her love needs to be selfless, pure and holy. A person who is selfish is a sinful person. Only when a person who fills his or her heart with love for other people and God, then they can be considered holy.

Jesus told his disciples: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). He invited his disciples to love all human persons not only as they love themselves but also as he loves them: “To love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mk 12:33). “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn 13: 34). The missionary has to be the living witness to the transcendent loving presence of God who is love. A missionary can be the living witness of Christ only when s/he surrenders himself or herself totally into the hands of God just like a child to the mother.

4.2 A Missionary – A Living Sacrifice to the Transcendence of Christ as Salt

The love that is in the hearts of men is either selfish or selfless. The selfish love demands selfless sacrifice from others. But the selfless love gives itself up and becomes a living sacrifice to others. The more the missionary unites with the person of Christ the more they thirst for sacrifice and service. There is no real and genuine service without selfless sacrifice.

Subash Anand in his article Prusha-Yajna: Self-giving as the Mystery of Being explains that the whole creation as an act is the mystery of the self-giving sacrifice of God, and this primordial sacrifice is not merely an event of the past, an opus operatum, but is also effective here and now, an opus operans- the mystery of our existence here and now. We all continue to be because God continues to sacrifice Himself here and now. The author while applying this theme to God’s self-sacrifice writes that God as the mystery of love, is being celebrated in the Eucharist everyday.16 Therefore, the missionary of Christ has not only to participate continuously in the living sacrifice of the Eucharist but also has to offer himself as the living sacrifice to God in the selfless service of his brethren. He has to follow the greatest example of Christ: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15: 13). The missionary as a living sacrifice following the model of Christ must become the friend of the poor and defender of the powerless and defenseless.

4.3 A Missionary – Ãnâwim of the Transcendence of the Beatitudes

The Hebrew term ãnâwim appears 13 times in the Psalms in the context of God’s relation to the poor. “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” (Ps 34:6). The ãnâwim are those persons who find themselves in humble circumstances and practice resignation without any compliant. Jesus Christ is not only the hope of the poor (ãnâwim) but he also became the poor and humble one (the ãnâwim) of God. The Church of Christ has to become ‘the Church with others’ instead of ‘the Church for others,’ and ‘the Church of the poor’ instead of, or rather, as well as, ‘the Church for the poor.’

The picture of the traditional Indian sannyâsi who shares the bitter experiences of the poor by adopting their life style offers another aspect of renunciation or sannyâsa. Poverty is a consequence of the God-experience because; those who tasted the riches of God easily give up worldly joys and comforts. For example, Gandhi lived an extremely simple and poor life. The house in which he lived was like the humble dwellings of the poor. He became poor in solidarity with poor people and he writes: When I found myself drawn into the political coil, I asked myself what was necessary for me in order to remain absolutely untouched by immortality, by untruth, by what is known as political gain.. I came definitely to the conclusion that, if I had to serve the people in whose midst my life was cast and whose difficulties I was to witness day after day, I must discard all wealth, all possession.17

The poverty of the missionary is a participation in the life of Jesus who said about his earthly abode: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Lk 9: 58). The solidarity and commitment of the missionary to the poor to be credible has to be authenticated by a life of simplicity and poverty.

A missionary needs to be a person of the Beatitudes and he has to have the following transcendent characteristics of “ poverty, meekness, acceptance of suffering and persecution, the desire for justice and peace, and charity”(RM 91). The life of voluntary poverty was lived by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the modern missionary of our times who, while mentioning about the paramount importance of poverty in the life of missionary said: “In order to have the joy of poverty it has to be lived. Acceptance of poverty is not a sign of weakness but of strength. In this manner, the sisters of charity, in their life can reflect the kenosis of Jesus and at the same time, have the joy of identifying themselves with the poorest of ‘the poor’.”18 Since God is on the side of the poor the missionary has to practice real poverty just as Christ did, and become the defender and hope of the poor.

4.4 A Missionary- Doulos of the Transcendence of the Cross

Jesus became the servant of all and gave an example at the Last Supper telling his apostles: “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13: 14). He also taught his disciples “whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35). The Church in spreading the Good News, however, should not show off, or assert its God-given authority, or dominate people, or impose Truth with arrogance. It must witness to the Truth in humility. It must be like the servant, following the example of its master Jesus who washed the feet of his disciples. Servant hood and humility in mission become an approach, an attitude, and a way of proceeding, almost a strategy.

The Church as a servant on its pilgrimage must walk humbly with the people of other faiths with creative fidelity, openness and response-ability. The perfect example of a servant of God and of Christ is Mother Mary. Mary truly gave ‘the Whole word to the whole world’ and yet remained so humble and reserved.

The missionary like Mary becomes the servant of God in so far as he or she participates in the self-emptying nature of God in Christ. God calls the missionary in and through the Church. He or she is called to serve the Kingdom of God by being a witness to the Gospel values of Christ. The missionary has to help people find God’s presence that is constantly at work with them in their daily life. He or she has to shine like the light of Christ not only in his or her self-sacrificing works of love and service, but also by witnessing to a life of holiness. He or she needs to be the salt of the earth, by their prophetic role to congratulate when something is good and to condemn when something goes wrong. The Indian sannyâsi is an enlightened person who can help people to have the same experience of enlightenment. He shows the people the way to remove the darkness-avidya from their minds and hearts. The sannyâsi has to safeguard the people and the world from the darkness of evils. They are the light and salt of liberation and thus the servants of God and men. Therefore, the Indian missionary being the servant of God and the Church must become the light and salt of the people of India through his or her living and loving witness of God’s love and holiness by walking humbly with the people of other faiths, ready to take risks and make any sacrifices to remain faithful to the Gospel values in the service of the Kingdom of God.

1. James D. G. Dunn, Christology in Making: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, London: SCM Press, 1980, p.118.

2. Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, London: SCM Press, 1984, p.189.

3. M. Neno Contran, “Missionary Spirituality,” in Following Christ in Mission, (ed.), Sebastian Karotemprel, Bombay: Pauline Publications, 1995, p.133.

4. J. B. Shelton, Mighty in Word and Deed, the Role of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts, Hendrickson Publishers, Massachusetts, 1991, p.8.

5. E. Frederick Crowe, “Son of God, Holy Spirit and World Religions: The Contribution of Bernard Lonergan to Wider Ecumenism, Chancellor’s Address II,” Regis College, Toronto, 1985, p.8. Quoted by Susan Smith, “The Holy Spirit and Mission in Some Contemporary Theologies of Mission,” in Sedos, Vol. 34, (2200), p.101.

6. Quoted in Tony Castle (ed.), Through the Year with John Paul II, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995, pp.140-141.

7. Cf. Christifideles Laici. No.87.

8. Robert Ellsberg, (ed.), Gandhi on Christianity, p.25; Quoted by Jacob Theckanath, “God’s Dream: Our Mission,” in Word and Worship 2 (2001), pp.15-29, p.22.

9. G. A. Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 3, Nashville: Abington Press, 1952, p.132.

10. G. A. Buttrick, IDB, Vol. 7, p.289.

11. The Latin pontifex is derived from pons (bridge) and facere (to make). It is very significant that in the Jaina tradition the founding fathers are called trtham-kara, bridge-builders.

12. Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, (ed.), Mission for the Twenty-First Century, The Chicago Center for Global Ministries, Chicago, 2001, p.19.

13. Eilers, Franz-Josef (ed.), For All Peoples of Asia: Federation of Asian bishop’s Conferences, Documents from 1992 to 1996, Philippians, Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 1997, pp.286-287.

14. D. S. Amalorpavadass, (ed.), Indian Christian Spirituality, Bangalore: NBCLC, 1982, p.54.

15. William McNamara, Earthly Mysticism, New York: Crossroad, 1983, pp.ix-x.

16. Subash Anand, “Purusa-Yajna: Self-giving as the Mystery of Being,” in Third Millennium V (2002) /2, pp.24-44.

17. M. K. Gandhi, Address to the Guild house, London (September 23, 9131) in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol.48, The Publication Division, Delhi, 1971, p.51.

18. A.C. Savarimuthu, Woman of the Century: Mother Teresa, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2000, p.100.