The world has changed a lot from the time of Fr. Allamano to today. This means also that the way mission is seen has also had a tremendous change. Our charism however demands that we remain as a congregation of mission ad gentes. From the onset, Fr. Allamano did not fumble around regarding the type of mission his missionaries would perform. He knew what he wanted for his missionaries. Certainly, certain things became clear to him with time. However in general, he had a vivid picture of the kind of mission he expected his missionaries to do: one among the non-Christians. His dream from the beginning was to found missionaries who would dedicate themselves for the people who had never met Christ. Later, that kind of missions came to be called mission “ad gentes”. Mission ad gentes entails quite a lot. It touches all those apostolic and evangelical activities which inspire the non Christian to convert, but also to be deeply convinced of the gospel. Fr. Allamano’s idea of mission was exactly founded on Christ’s own mission. Like Christ, missionaries were supposed to go house to house in the villages, meeting people, consoling people, healing people and encouraging people who may have been discouraged. Mission ad gentes touched those people who were more vulnerable in the society; it uplifted their lives, defended their rights and deeply changed their spiritual trajectory forever.
Our Founder’s love for mission ad gentes was evident in the way he followed up the issues of missions where his missionaries were working. He demanded to know everything in detail, since that was the only way to have a “solid picture” of what his missionaries were going through, what they needed and how he needed to help them. Through letters and diaries, Fr. Allamano followed bit by bit the experiences of his missionaries, developing a “concrete experience” of the life his missionaries were living in the mission while still in his office at the Consolata Shrine. Even when he spoke to the seminarians, he made it clear that whatever they were undergoing as formation was meant to set them up for future missionary tasks. The evident change that has taken place from Fr. Allamano’s time to ours has also changed mission in undeniable ways. While one time mission was “planting” the Church among non Christians, today, mission is less about the Church and more about the kingdom of God. The Church “is not the kingdom of God on earth” (H Fries, Fundamental Theology, pg 438). It is only a sign and tool of that kingdom. While one time the perspective of conquering the non Christians and converting them was acceptable, today such a view of things would be frowned upon. At the time, the Church was seen as the only pillar of truth, and whoever was not in her was considered heretic at best, and demonic at worst. The Church at that time felt called to conquer, dominate and even replace other religions. Today, dialogue is the way to go even in missionary activity. This change has been amplified by today’s emphasis on communication and respect for people’s freedom of conscience. It is founded on the realization that God has been in dialogue with all people of the earth from the beginning. The change of approach even in the Church is a result of the “discovery” that other religions and cultural traditions contain seeds of the Word (AG 11) or “rays of truth”. In other words, they are not entirely evil or totally wrong. This view of things encouraged respect and dialogue.
In addition, while one time the Church was seen as the source of mission, today the prominence of the Holy Trinity is highly underlined. This change is a product of Vatican II, where mission is seen as the movement from God to the people. As such, the Church becomes just a tool for that mission. As many people would put it, “there is a Church because there is a mission and not the vice versa. In other words, it is not the Church of Christ that has a mission. On the contrary, it is the mission of Christ that has a Church. This view of things has a lot of implications. At its best, it changes the purpose of the mission from the establishment of the Church to the propagation of the divine plan of salvation. This is to say that the purpose of missionary activity is no longer and should no longer be just the establishment of the Church, but the effort of seeing the realization of God’s salvific plan, which is universal, hence embracing the whole human race and the entire creation. If Fr. Allamano was to return today, one of the changes that would make him happy is the reverse trend that missionary apostolate has taken. While one time missionaries came from Europe and North America, today missionaries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America work in Europe and America. Of course that has been necessitated by the decline of vocations in Europe and the explosion of the same in Africa, Asia and Latin America – which is not an accident or mistake of the century, but the will of God. Fr. Allamano would be impressed by the maturity we as his missionaries have attained so far. In addition, with the frenzied flow of immigrants among the continents, mission has received a new face. In Fr. Allamano’s time Africa was predominantly the land of Africans, today Africa is full of Europeans, Americans, Chinese and Arabs. This change of context certainly demands a new way of doing mission, in addition to understanding it.
Even with the changes that have taken place over the years, Fr. Allamano’s understanding of mission seems to have outlived his time. For example, today we affirm that our call to mission is actually a call to share God’s mission and therefore to collaborate first with him and then with others who are similarly called by the same God. Our affirmation underlines the fact that mission is greater than any individual or congregation. This is what Fr. Allamano meant when speaking to his seminarians, he said, “No one is necessary in the Church, but all well formed priests are useful” (S.L. 82). In other words, Fr. Allamano discouraged the tendency of missionaries working alone as if they were the only ones who could save the world. The many citations of other Congregations by the Founder showed that he believed that other Religious Institutes had as much good to offer in the Church as his own. He also believed in the collaboration of Religious Institutes as was the case when the Cottollengo Sisters who joined his missionaries at the beginning. This tells us that even as Fr. Allamano was founding his Congregation, he never had the illusion that his was better than others, or that he was a better Founder than the rest.
When the Consolata Missionaries arrived in Tuthu, Fr. Allamano insisted that they had to cooperate with the Africans, beginning with the workers who were doing menial jobs in the missions, to the catechists who soon would become the principal assistance of the priests in evangelization. The insistence of Fr. Allamano on this issue made it clear that to him collaboration was more than just a mission strategy. In other words, his missionaries did not need to cooperate among themselves and with the natives just to be effective. To Fr. Allamano, collaboration was a statement on the nature of mission. By working together, they would be witnessing him who had sent them (Christ) and he who through whom they were able to do all (Holy Spirit). This is not different even for us today. If mission is the task of collaborating with God in his plan, then it is necessary to live and work in harmony among ourselves and the people around us. Our collaborative attitude is itself a testimony that says a lot about what we believe, how we think about what we believe and how we look at others and ourselves.
Another impressive attitude of Fr. Allamano that defied his time is the disposition with which he demanded his missionaries to work. The Founder was aware that coming from Europe, there was a risk of the missionaries considering themselves superior to the Africans. The fact that they were the ones who carried the gospel message and the fact that they were from economically developed country would have easily made them to present the gospel as “theirs”, that is, as if it was an integral part of their European heritage and identity. Fr. Allamano knew that if his missionaries fell in that trap, they would think that their alleged superiority gave them the right to impose the Christian gospel on the people who were considered culturally primitive, religiously pagan, economically poor and technologically backward. That understanding of Fr. Allamano was what made him insist on the issue of humility and collaborative capacity. To him, the missionary was never a master or owner of the gospel of Christ. The missionary was always a collaborator with God and a servant. Today, we can learn a lot from this attitude of Fr. Allamano. We do not have to impose the gospel to others. We do not own the gospel. Our attitude and approach should be one of sharing the faith as a gift received from God through other people, aware that we are only collaborators and servants of God who does his will the way he wishes, to those he wishes, and when he wishes. That view of things makes us realize that we are not the only ones evangelizing others. On the contrary, while we evangelize others, we are evangelized too. In other words, unlike in the past when the missionary was seen as the carrier of the good news to be poured into the “empty” non Christians’ lives, today we must have the humility of knowing that God has been before us in the places we go for mission. That assertion should make us go slowly into the way we relate with others. That way, we will not stand in the way of the dialogue between people and God through imposition of our own opinions and agenda. Instead, we should promote dialogue between God and his people, and discover the opinion and agenda of God for the given people through prayer and meditation of his word. That way, our participation in the mission confirms us as God’s tools among his people.