Greetings in the name of the Lord:
Jesus said: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). We call this command of Jesus the Great Commission.
According to Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis:
By virtue of their baptism, all members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization—and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized...
Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God's saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries,” but rather that we are always “missionary disciples.”
Scripture itself confirms this pattern in the lives of the first witnesses: those first disciples, immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim Him joyfully: “We have found the Messiah!” (Jn 1:41). The Samaritan woman became a missionary immediately after speaking with Jesus, and many Samaritans came to believe in Him “because of the woman's testimony” (Jn 4:39).
In order to strengthen all of us in our missionary discipleship, we are being given the opportunity to see where we are in our spiritual growth and discipleship as a Family of Parishes and as an Archdiocese. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is making available to all the faithful the Disciple Maker Index (DMI). The DMI will launch October 27 and be available through November 24. This anonymous survey will prompt each of us to reflect on how we can become better disciples. The information will also help us to better evangelize and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Please be sure to be an active disciple and fully participate in this evangelization opportunity.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ronald Haft
