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In the Beginning Is Communication: Life as the Starting Point of Our Identity and Mission (A reflection on missionary identity in light of the Word made flesh)
Pascual Semaun, SVD (PAR Communications Coordinator)
Before every institution, structure, programme, pastoral activity, or sacramental celebration, there is a God who communicates. A God who speaks, calls, enters into relationship, and shares His life with humanity. The history of salvation begins with this initiative of God, who goes out of Himself to encounter the human person.
The Gospel of St John expresses this with extraordinary power: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). And shortly afterwards it affirms: “And the Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14).
Here we find a fundamental key to understanding our identity and mission as Christians and, in particular, as Missionaries of the Divine Word.
The Word: God Who Communicates
The Word of God does not remain an abstract idea, a doctrine, or a document. It becomes history, presence, encounter, and witness. God communicates by drawing near.
This communication reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come merely to convey a number of religious ideas about God. Through His life, words, gestures, relationships, and choices, He revealed the true face of the Father.
He drew close to the poor, the sick, sinners, the excluded, and those living on the margins of society. He listened, welcomed, healed, forgave, and restored dignity.
Therefore, Jesus does not merely speak about God. Jesus communicates God through His very life.
This affirmation has important consequences for our mission. Christian communication cannot be reduced to the transmission of religious information. Its main challenge is to make visible, through life itself, the face of the God we proclaim.
One question becomes unavoidable: What face of God do we communicate when we speak about Him, but also when we live, act, and relate to others?
From the Word Is Born a Living Community
The Church is born from welcoming this Word and is called to continue in history the witness of Jesus Christ.
The sacraments, evangelisation, catechesis, pastoral ministry, and structures have meaning when they are at the service of a living community, gathered by the Word and sent to communicate it.
The risk arises when we reverse this order. When we place only the institution, structures, programmes, activities, or sacramental celebrations at the centre, we may end up caring for the branches while forgetting the roots.
We may have many activities but little life. Many structures but little communion. Many media but little message. Many publications but little witness.
Without life there is no dynamism. Without relationship there is no true communication. And without communication, mission loses its strength.
The question should not be only how many activities we carry out, but what kind of life we are generating through them.
Our History Also Communicates
This perspective can also be applied to our congregational history. When we remember the confreres who preceded us, we do not find only names, dates, photographs, and documents. We find lives.
Even our cemeteries can become places of memory and communication. Every grave speaks of a person who lived, believed, worked, suffered, celebrated, and gave his life to the mission.
The cemetery communicates. It tells us who our confreres were and, at the same time, asks us who we are today.
Memory does not simply consist of preserving the past. It means recognising a living heritage capable of illuminating our present and guiding our future.
The best way to honour those who preceded us is not merely to remember their names, but to allow the values, faith, and missionary spirit that inspired their lives to continue bearing fruit in us.
St Arnold Janssen: A Life That Communicates
St Arnold Janssen holds a special place in this history. He was not merely the founder of an institution or the organiser of a missionary enterprise. He was a man whose life was deeply marked by the Word and by a radical trust in God.
His prayer, decisions, work, and dedication show that mission is born from an experience of God capable of transforming one’s existence.
Arnold Janssen communicated through his life a profound trust in divine providence and an untiring passion to proclaim the Word to all peoples.
Therefore, his legacy cannot be reduced to buildings, institutions, projects, or structures. His true inheritance is a missionary spirituality that we are called to embody creatively in today’s circumstances.
The question his life leaves us is not only what works we must preserve, but what spirit we must keep alive.
Before We Have Media, We Are Communication
This perspective takes on particular importance in today’s society.
We live surrounded by media. Social networks, websites, radio, YouTube channels, podcasts, and digital platforms are part of our daily lives.
But there is something we cannot forget: Before we have means of communication, we ourselves are communication.
Before Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or any technological platform, there is the human person.
The way we speak communicates. The way we listen communicates. The way we relate to others communicates. Our community life communicates. The way we treat the poor communicates. Our attitude towards migrants communicates. Our relationship with young people communicates. The way we care for creation communicates.
Even our silences and omissions communicate.
Therefore, the most important question is not only, “What are we communicating through our media?” but: What are we communicating through our lives?
A welcoming community communicates something. A divided community also communicates something. A missionary who is close to people communicates something. An indifferent missionary also communicates something. A Church committed to the poor communicates something. A Church closed in on itself also communicates something.
In the end, we may have the best means of communication and yet fail to communicate what we truly want to proclaim. Life communicates more than any file, document, or publication.
Communication as a Dimension of Mission
From this perspective, Communication should not be understood merely as a technical task aimed at producing news or managing social media.
Communication is a dimension of our missionary identity. To communicate means to create bonds, share life, build communion, and make visible what God is doing in our midst. Therefore, authentic pastoral communication should not be limited to informing others that an activity has taken place.
A photograph of a meeting can show who was present. But good communication should help us discover what happened there, what experience of faith was lived, which people were reached, what transformation took place, and what face of God became visible.
It is not merely about showing what we do, but about communicating why we do it and what Gospel we are living.
Four Dimensions, One Mission
This understanding also allows us to integrate the four dimensions of the SVD mission.
Biblical Animation helps us to listen to the God who communicates through His Word. It roots us in the Word and enables us to discern reality in the light of the Gospel.
Mission Animation impels us to go beyond ourselves and encounter the peoples, cultures, and realities that need a missionary presence.
JPIC transforms the Word we have heard into a concrete commitment to justice, peace, the integrity of creation, and the dignity of every person.
Communication makes this life and mission visible, accessible, and participatory.
They are not four separate compartments. They are four expressions of the same identity. This entire process can be understood in a simple way: God communicates, the Word becomes flesh, life is transformed, mission is born, mission commits itself to life, and that life, in turn, is communicated. In this way, the Word we hear does not remain confined to a personal or community experience, but becomes missionary action, a commitment to justice, peace, creation, and human dignity, and finally a witness that can be shared with others.
Thus, Biblical Animation, Mission Animation, JPIC, and Communication are not four separate paths, but expressions of the same identity and of one single mission: to make present and visible the Word who continues to become flesh in history.
From Doing to Living
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges for our mission is to move from a pastoral ministry centred only on doing to one centred on living.
We can fill our calendars with activities, meetings, celebrations, and projects. All of these may be necessary. But one question should accompany every effort: What kind of life is all this generating?
It is not simply a matter of carrying out more activities, but of generating processes. It is not only about maintaining structures, but about placing them at the service of the mission. It is not only about publishing news, but about communicating experiences that help people discover the presence of God.
We need to move from activities to processes, from structures to life, from information to communication, and from discourse to witness.
What God Are We Communicating?
This perspective raises a question we cannot avoid: What God are we communicating through our lives and our mission?
This is no minor question. Every daily decision communicates. Every community relationship communicates. Every pastoral choice communicates. Every way of using the media communicates. Every attitude towards the poor communicates. Every response to a situation of injustice communicates. Every gesture of welcome communicates.
Therefore, the future of mission will not depend only on the number of structures, projects, or resources available. It will also depend on the quality of the witness we are capable of offering.
We may ask ourselves: Are we building living communities or simply maintaining structures? Are we forming disciples and missionaries or merely carrying out activities? Are we communicating the Gospel or simply informing others about our programmes? Does our life confirm what we proclaim? And, finally: What future are we building from the way we live today?
Moving from Intention to Commitment
The challenge, then, is concrete. We need to set aside real time to listen to and pray with the Word. We need to strengthen Mission Animation and go out to encounter people and communities. We need to undertake concrete JPIC actions in defence of human dignity, justice, peace, and creation. And we need to communicate creatively, truthfully, and hopefully what God is doing among us.
We cannot wait for others to communicate the face of God. It is we who must make Him visible.
The way we live, our relationships, our decisions, our pastoral choices, and our service are also forms of communication.
The future begins today, wherever each confrere decides to move from intention to commitment, and wherever each community becomes a home that listens to the Word, goes out to encounter others, serves the cause of justice, and communicates hope.
In the Beginning Is Communication
Christian history begins with a God who communicates. The Word becomes flesh. Jesus Christ communicates the face of the Father. St Arnold Janssen communicates through his life a radical trust in the Word and in mission.
Our confreres communicate to us a living heritage. And we are called to continue this chain of communication through our own existence.
Because, ultimately, mission does not consist merely in communicating something; it consists in communicating a life.
A life received from God. A life transformed by the Word. A life given to the mission. A life committed to justice, peace, and creation. A life capable of communicating hope.
In the beginning is communication. And the challenge of our mission is to make the Word continue to become flesh in our lives, in our communities, and in our world.
