Pope Saint John Paul II begins his encyclical letter on the missions (Redemptoris missio, 1990) by citing Saint Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians. The Apostle to the Gentiles writes there: “Woe to me if I do not preach the [Gospel].” (1 Corinthians 9:16)
This is exactly what we expect Saint Paul to say. After all, he was the Church’s greatest evangelist in the ancient world, and he remains the example par excellence of what we are to do ourselves in light of Baptism and our desire for Heaven. But there could be some hesitation in accepting the Gospel if all we do is understand the word “woe” from one vantage point. And by that, I mean that “woe” only pertains to calamities.
Indeed, there were enough calamities in Paul’s ministry. He was beaten with rods and imprisoned in Philippi. (Acts 16:22-23) Later on, while at sea, he was shipwrecked. (Acts 27:41-44) When he got to Rome, he was placed under house arrest. (Acts 28:16) Yet not even this lessening of immediate peril could prevent his beheading and martyrdom in c. 68 AD.
Woe has another meaning that we need to recognize. Its second meaning is found in Saint Luke’s presentation of the Beatitudes. (Luke 6:20-26) Like the version by Saint Matthew (Matthew 5:3-12), there are the blessings. But Saint Luke’s account contains four woes: woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are filled now, woe to you who laugh, and woe to you when all speak well of you. (Luke 6:24-26)
Woe in the Lucan version of the Beatitudes suggests a divine disfavor or judgment against precisely those attitudes that stubbornly oppose the Gospel. These would be the desire for opulence, pretentiousness, unseriousness, and an unprincipled malleability in personal relationships. In our time, we could especially add to this list an attitude of embarrassment when it comes to the truth. In point of fact, it’s this attitude that deters a lot of people today from accepting the Gospel.
What I am thinking of here is the deeply entrenched cultural phenomenon of relativism. Pope Saint John Paul II refers to the phenomenon of relativism in Redemptoris missio (36) and calls it a “difficulty” when it comes to the proclamation of the Gospel. It is, he says, a widespread indifference which leads us to the belief that, even for those who believe in God, one religion is as good as another. (RM, 36)
It seems to me that ecclesiastical leaders have to exercise great caution regarding terminology, including the use of a word like “path” in light of the reigning cultural and religious relativism. For it can very easily be understood in a climate of indifferentism that all paths to God are the same. And if that is the case, then religion is just a matter of de gustibus, whatever suits your fancy.
Pope Saint John Paul II’s notion of “difficulty” owing to the religious indifferentism all around us points towards obstacles to conversion. To change religions is not just for the purpose of maintaining spousal or familial harmony. Often, conversion comes down to whether there will be a personal commitment to the truth and how it is expressed in one religion over another. To make this personal commitment to the truth today takes both insight and courage. It asserts that feelings are not the arbiter of everything. Truth matters.
Twenty-five years ago, there was considerable consternation in ecumenical circles when, in the Declaration entitled Dominus Jesus (2000), the Catholic Church pushed aside any embarrassment about the truth and dared to assert that the fullness of truth can be embraced personally. That embrace is obviously of the One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (John 14:6) And by the means of divine grace, the Lord endowed his Church with the fullness of the means of salvation.
The proper attitude for us to have then is humility. More and more, our prayer must be like that of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Visitation. In the Magnificat, Our Lady prays thus: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” (Luke 1:46-48) Lowliness is not a false modesty. At the same time, neither is it a reticence or reluctance to let the light shine for all to see.
The conclusion of Saint Matthew’s Gospel records how the apostles are commissioned to preach. First, they are to make disciples of all the nations. Next, they are to make those disciples clean in the waters of Baptism. Lastly, the apostles have the obligation to teach all the nations “to obey everything I have commanded you.”
The apostles could not be of tepid faith. They had to be resolute and determined. And so too would their successors have to demonstrate these very same characteristics.
The opening scene in the film The Mission (1987) shows Jesuit missionaries from Europe scaling waterfalls in South America to reach the Guaraní and proclaim the Gospel to them. Any number of woes could have doomed this apostolic undertaking far from home, not least catastrophic injury or death. Somehow, though, you knew that any other type of woe would be powerless to stop them.
The fact that there is less old-time missionary work carried out by the Church in our own time. And this places a responsibility on all of us to be witnesses in a culture that believes it doesn’t need the truth. But the remedy is found in Jesus’ own words: “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
The truth is real because Christ is real. Had He not died and risen from the dead for us, there would be no supreme exaltation of truth. (Veritatis Splendor, 87) In the Cross and the Resurrection, there can be no embarrassment. For we have been saved in just this way.
