“Mass feels like heaven on earth for me. And that's what I want it to feel like for everybody else.”
Ann O’Brien, Keynote Presenter
It was a deeply personal note in the first Keynote Presentation of the “Growing as Communities of Mission” Sandhurst Formation Institute that asked a much bigger question: What is the mission, and what does that mean today?
The presentation began with a challenge from presenter, Fr Richard Rosse. In a world of increasing secularisation, the Church is encountering people who are searching for meaning and purpose, while some of the models and practices that have served parish life for generations are no longer reaching people in the same way.
“The ‘great commission’ that Jesus has entrusted to us has not changed, but the way we go about that mission needs to change.”
Referring to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Evangeli Gaudium (the Joy of the Gospel) in which he called for the Church to renew its missionary focus , Fr Richard emphasised that in an ever-increasingly secularised world, we need to be innovative and find new ways to bring about the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone; we cannot remain stuck in old ways of doing things.
Although the people who God has already moved are the backbone of parish life, bringing comfort and solace to everything the parish does, the goal of his parish, St Catherine of Sienna in Caroline Springs is to become a “centres for missionary outreach” and feed those who are coming.
The question, then, is ‘how?’
How do we make disciples? What does it mean to be missionary in today’s world? And how can parishes move beyond maintaining what already exists?
The answer, the presenters suggested, lies in going back to the foundations of the Church – to Jesus Himself and His model of discipleship.
“Jesus did not build the Church first and then find people to fill it,” explained keynote presenter Ann O’Brien. “He made disciples. He knew them, he ate with them, he walked with them, taught them and invited them into a relationship that transformed their lives. ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’
Jesus’ model of discipleship was deeply relational, requiring accompaniment, formation and a willingness to grow in faith beyond Sunday Mass.
In her presentation, Ann O’Brien brought that idea into sharper focus, beginning with the question of evangelisation – a word that, she acknowledged, can make many Catholics uncomfortable.
“Evangelisation freaks people out,” said Ann. “Many Catholics, even priests and religious and lay leaders, find evangelisation scary; people avoid it like the plague.”
Ann describes evangelisation as encounter leading to witness or testimony, and believes it is core to our mission.
To be missionary today, we need to go back to Jesus’ blueprint for discipleship, she said, illustrating this with two Gospel stories: The Samaritan woman and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. In both, an encounter with Jesus changed something within them, which, then, overflowed into witness.
The Samaritan woman returned to her town and told others, ‘Come and see’. The disciples at Emmaus recognised, only afterwards, with the breaking of the bread, that it was Jesus who walked and talked with them: ‘Were our hearts not burning on the road while he was talking to us?’
For Ann, these stories reveal the essential nature of encounter in our mission as followers of Jesus. We need to nurture our parishioners and inquirers with more than just information about our faith; we need to create opportunities for people to encounter Christ and build communities in which that encounter can grow into a lived relationship with Him.
She spoke candidly about her own Catholic upbringing, where faith was deeply present, but she never heard anyone talk about a personal relationship with Jesus and never experienced an encounter with Him herself.
For Ann’s mother, getting her children to Mass each Sunday was a “mission in itself”. She was taught when to sit, when to stand, when to kneel, what to wear and how to behave, but not necessarily why these things mattered.
Ann emphasised that Catechesis and the Sacraments are very important, but that they can’t be the only thing that parishes are doing to nurture parishioners in their faith.
“Jesus doesn’t want us there with just our physical presence. He wants us there with our whole beings, with our whole hearts, and only then can you talk about your encounter, that will lead to witness, that will very likely bring someone else to get to know and love Him with their whole hearts.”
That distinction was important. The call to missionary discipleship is not a rejection of the sacramental and catechetical life of the Church, says Ann. Rather, it asks what happens when those riches become part of a living relationship with Christ, and how that relationship is then shared with others.
The challenge for parishes is to create the conditions in which that encounter can happen and can lead somewhere: to belonging, conversion, discipleship, witness and, ultimately, mission.
Ann spoke about the work underway in her own parish, St Catherine of Sienna in Caroline Springs, where opportunities such as Alpha, are offered so people can come to explore faith, ask questions and experience fellowship.
“If we can be that place where people can come, not just to receive content on the divine, but real faith and fellowship. That is what we're trying to create in our parish.”
Fr Richard and Ann’s message reflected Bishop René’s words in his opening reflection: the Church's unchanging mission requires fresh ways of living and sharing that mission.
Ironically, a ‘fresh way’ requires us to embrace a 2000-year-old model of discipleship, Jesus’ relational model of discipleship. The call for us in parishes today is to become invitational and welcoming communities where people can encounter Christ, be accompanied as disciples, and then be sent to share what they have received.
Anyone who has had an encounter with the Lord and is nurtured within a parish community can, through their lives, give witness and bring others to an encounter with Christ. That witness can lead to testimony and, in turn, intentional discipleship. Their thirst for the Eucharist will bring them to Mass, while the witness of parishioners in the way they live their lives can help keep them engaged in parish life.
For Ann, the Eucharist is at the centre of that encounter.
“Mass feels like heaven on earth for me. And that's what I want to it to feel like for everybody else. Remember, the amazed disciples who recognised him at the breaking of the bread? That's what we should encounter every single time we go to Mass.”
