Formation For mission

Why is formation for mission essential?

Our loving relationships exist to be shared with others. When we experience the love of another, we feel compelled to communicate its importance to our families, friends, colleagues and others. We want to share with them that which is most precious and meaningful to us and by doing so for them to share in it. Our love is not a private affair, something that we jealously guard, but rather an embrace offered to others so that they can also experience something of love’s warmth and power.

Similarly, our experience of being loved by Christ through the beauty of His Church and the friendship and fellowship we experience together as a community of believers has to be shared with others. Our faith is not a private affair but something that we want others to know and experience too so that they can also share in His love.

For this experience to be shared, we need to be able to articulate what this love of God means for us. We should be confident in giving reasons for our hope in the crucified and risen Christ and why our faith is important to us.

The purpose of formation for mission is not only to illuminate the mind intellectually but also to fire the heart for evangelisation within us so that we are able to share the “Good News” of our faith with others. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us life and whose power reveals not only who we are but also, and more importantly, who Jesus is and how His saving mission of love enriches our earthly lives and accompanies us on our journey towards eternal life.