Abidjan, 14 January, 2020 / 10:20 pm (ACI Africa).
Days after the recent Feast of the Baptism of the Lord that marked the conclusion of the Christmas season Sunday January 12, a missionary priest ministering in the West African nation of Togo has questioned the perception among a section of Christians that participating in Holy Mass is “the finality of baptism.”
“Going to the holy table is certainly fundamental for all Christians, but baptism calls above all for a strong and prophetic commitment in favor of the gospel. It must be said, the Eucharist is not the finality of baptism,” Fr. Donald Zagore, an Ivorian missionary in Togo has argued in a reflection shared with ACI Africa.
According to the Society of African Missions (SMA) member, the Extraordinary Missionary Month celebrated last October under the theme ‘Baptized and Sent: the Church of Christ on mission in the world’ placed “special emphasis on the missionary character of all baptized people” in view of rekindling “the flame of mission in every baptized person.”
The missionary character of the baptized, the Ivorian cleric affirmed, is “a truth, which today allows us to overcome the trap of constantly wanting to reduce the grace of baptism to the sole participation in the Eucharist, as if the purpose of baptism were only the holy table.”
“To subscribe to such a logic (reducing the grace of baptism to the sole participation in the Eucharist) would be to oversimplify all the content and the requirement to which baptism invites us,” Fr. Zagore said.
