The word “mission” has been evolving for me over the past several years. At an early stage, it simply meant going to an under-developed country and doing pastoral work or physical labour like building houses. I thought mission was only for people who are missionaries, not necessarily for people who have “regular” jobs. After a while, I understood it as going to any place, regardless of economic, political, social, or cultural state, and doing something that helped people become closer to God. I believe that mission is all these things and more. It is more than physically going somewhere but it requires presence – mind, body, heart, and soul.
There are many times where I have over complicated mission and as a result have failed to do anything because of fear. I failed to move, to make a decision, to say yes, because I wanted some sort of security. There have been times where I have put mission in a box and as a result did things that I wanted to do or that I thought was best, only to realize that there was something else I should’ve done or that was needed.
I think mission is a call to go out of oneself. It means to do something for God and others, not for oneself. This can be done any where at any time, regardless of profession or educational background someone has. The moment someone realizes that the life they’re living is not for them is the moment, I think, someone begins their mission. Mission is call that everyone has. It is something that everyone can do.
“Everyone can see their future branch out into two different directions: What I could be if I follow my own dreams, and What I could be if I follow Christ. In the first path, we think we know what we can expect; in the second, we must be prepared for anything. But the real moment of vocational insight dawns when we see Christ at the meeting point of our aspirations for love and happiness and His call to follow.” (Fr. John Henry Hanson, O.Praem from http://www.stjosemaria.org/articles/404-faith-of-the-magi-2)