In section 37, Pope John Paul II looks at three “Parameters of the Church’s Mission Ad Gentes.”
By virtue of Christ’s universal mandate, the mission ad gentes knows no boundaries. Still, it is possible to determine certain parameters within which that mission is exercised, in order to gain a real grasp of the situation.
- (a) Territorial limits.
- (b) New worlds and new social phenomena.
- (c) Cultural sectors: the modern equivalents of the Areopagus.
We’ll look carefully at these in the days ahead. My initial take on this lead paragraph is that human beings can place no limits on introducing (or re-introducing) Jesus to people. We don’t get to call off the mission because something is too hard or seems too insurmountable. We can slice up the possibilities and look at things in pieces. That might make the difficult seem doable.
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