I am a Mission
“I am a mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world.”
Romans 12:6-8
Mission is what you do on a daily basis to practically live out your God-given identity (your natural talents, spiritual gifts, skills, personality traits, temperament, interests, passions, etc.) in order to live out your ultimate purpose of knowing, loving, and serving God and being with him in all eternity, and offering your neighbor this same adventure and journey!
Many people think of “mission” as something you do—a project, a role, or a task. Scripture and the Church’s teaching invite us to see it differently: mission is not first something we do; it is something we are. You don’t just have a mission; you are a mission.
Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate 23
A Foundational Definition
At its core, mission is the unique way each baptized Christian lives out God’s call to love and serve Him and others in daily life. It’s more than a job or a role—it is the expression of who you are in Christ, shaped by your gifts, experiences, relationships, and prayer.
Mission differs but relates closely to:
- Vocation: Your specific state or calling in life (e.g., marriage, priesthood, consecrated life, single life).
- Purpose: The broader reason God created you—to glorify Him and love others.
Mission is how your vocation and purpose come alive every day, in every encounter, task, and choice.
From the moment of baptism, your whole life becomes caught up in God’s saving plan (CCC 849). You are not here by accident. You were willed, loved, and sent into this world at this moment in history with a purpose no one else can fulfill in exactly the same way.
Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16
The Purpose of Mission
Every mission has a “why.” The Christian mission’s ultimate purpose is not self-fulfillment, personal achievement, or even the mere betterment of society—though those may be fruits of it. Its purpose is to participate in God’s eternal plan of love:
- To glorify Him (CCC 1).
- To share in His divine life (Dei Verbum 2).
- To draw all people and all creation into communion with Him (CCC 850).
The Catechism begins with this truth:
“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life” (CCC 1).
This is the heartbeat of mission: God’s glory and the world’s good, inseparably linked. The Father sent the Son into the world to proclaim the Kingdom, reconcile what is broken, and serve in love (John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). And Jesus, risen from the dead, sends us in the same way:
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.