2017 USCCB Convocation Participants Guidebook and Journal | Page 13

Foundation, Motivation and Context
Diocesan, Organizational, and Community/Group
Goal Setting
(see Pope Francis, “Address,” November 10, 2015,
Florence, Italy)
Mass of Sending:
Mission and Going Forth
(see EG, no. 261, and also nos. 19-49 and 259-288)
Foundation, Motivation, and Context of
the Convocation
Foundation: The Call to Missionary Discipleship
During his public ministry, Jesus did not wait for his first disci-
ples to come to him; he actively called them to follow him (see
Mt 4:18-22, Mk 1:16-20, Jn 1:35-51). Many others who encoun-
tered Jesus, such as those who received miraculous healing at his
hands, could not help but speak about this meeting, even when
Jesus asked them not to (e.g., Mt 8:33, Mk 1:43-45, Jn 4:28-29, Jn
9:8-12).
Each one of us is called to continue Jesus’ mission today. “Every
Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encoun-
tered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are
‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries,’ but rather that we are always ‘mis-
sionary disciples.’” 9
Motivation and Context: Pope Francis’s Evangelii
Gaudium and the Bishops of the United States
Jesus’ call to missionary discipleship has been sustained in and
answered by his Church over the centuries. Following the Second
Vatican Council, Bl. Paul VI issued a call for the whole Church
to embrace anew her fundamental mission of evangelization.
St. John Paul II amplified and deepened this call with an empha-
sis on the need to undertake a new evangelization, an emphasis
8