Co-responsibility in mission: How we can better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

“Co-responsibility” is fundamental to the teaching of the Church as reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council. Every baptized person is responsible for carrying out the mission entrusted to the disciples by our Lord: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all 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. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:19–20).

We are all responsible for the mission of the Church. All of us, without exception, have important roles to play in the work of evangelization. We are each, in our own ways, called to be Spirit-filled evangelizers who proclaim the joy of the Gospel in what we do and say as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. No single individual can accomplish the work of evangelization on her or his own. As Pope Francis teaches in Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), “A spirit-filled evangelization is one guided by the Holy Spirit, for he is the soul of the Church called to proclaim the Gospel.” The activity of the Holy Spirit is essential. If we’re not sure we have it, then the solution is to pray for it.

It’s true that there are distinctive roles assigned to different members of the one Body of Christ. As St. Paul tells us (1 Cor 12: 4–11):

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.

All of us are co-responsible members of Christ’s Body, the Church. Each of us has a role to play, as Paul reminds us (1 Cor 12:28): “Some people God has designated in the Church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues.”

Continue reading Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s latest newsletter.