"Stretching for the Long Run Home"

One springtime in my young adult years, I decided that I was going to take up running as an exercise. The tight grip of winter had finally let go of its wrestle hold on the city of Chicago where I live. I bought a pair of good running shoes and came up with a strategy I thought would help me get into the discipline needed to become a runner. My plan was to commit myself to run every day of the coming summer, but I would only run as long as I enjoyed it!

The first few times I literally ran only one city block, then turned around and headed for home. Gradually I found myself running longer and longer and going farther and farther, while always remembering that I had to circle back and return home.

It worked! I really came to enjoy running and became a pretty good runner. I also came to have a deeper appreciation of this fundamental rhythm of life and of the life of faith. It's all about going out and coming home.

Marching orders from above

Jesus gave some very direct marching orders to us, His disciples: "As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you!" He is clearly telling us that mission is at the heart of discipleship. We are being told to go out and to extend Christ's transforming presence and power to every nook of the earth and every cranny of the human heart.

However, He orders us to go out only to draw us more profoundly home. His desire is that all who encounter Him on the road of life be baptized in the Spirit and be immersed in the deep waters of Trinitarian love.

Not all we meet will become church, but we who are church are meant to be the sacrament and embodiment of Christ's love for all humanity and all creation. Through our witness of compassion and care, and by becoming instruments of Christ's peace and justice, we are drawing all people home to the divine hearth of God's love for the whole world.

An erosion of faith

If Christ's challenge is to go out to the whole world, perhaps the place of most challenge today is the mission to our own country and culture. In our minds we may link "mission" with foreign missions, but all religious sociologists in America point to the erosion of faith life in our own land, in our own church, and indeed in every one of our families.

We are at a critical moment in the American Church. Clearly, this is not the time for maintenance but for mission. You, the Catholic Extension family, understand this. The challenge is real, but your zeal for Mission America is strong. You are proven runners in the mission of spreading God's Good News to the far reaches of our land, all the while knowing that this mission journey is leading all of us home to the heart of God.

You have come to know and to trust this rhythm of the life of faith. It is all about mission and communion, going out and coming home. May you come to know the deep and abiding joy of becoming who you truly are - extensions of Christ's life-giving love to every region of our country, every aspect of our culture and every dimension of the human heart. God bless you!
Please consider making a gift to the Mission Church in America. I ask you as part of the Catholic Extension family to respond generously to this effort and make your safe and secure donation now. Thank you.

Go to the June 2008 issue of EXTENSION Magazine online.
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