Mission and the Poor in the City Today: Problems and Opportunities

This paper investigates mission and the presence of poverty in the city of today. The mission to proclaim the Good News, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God or the Reign of God, is the central theme of Jesus ’preaching, and a mandate given to His apostles. The world, however, has changed and has turned into urban cities where a great number of people live. The context of urbanization of the world brings great concern to mission, as mission looks into the present society with its people being recipients of the Church's mission of evangelization. The world is now in the age of global diversity and plurality as different religions, culture, and status such as the rich and poor alike meet in time and space where boundary is already discarded. Thus, there is a need for spirituality of mission that would make the Kingdom of God present at hand in the anonymity, multi-culturality, multi-religiosity, and economically poor people in the city. Using the three R's (reality, reflection and response) of theological analysis with the support coming from the different perspectives of anthropology, sociology, theology and missiology this study looks into the presence or absence of mission in the city and the poor in the city today. The mission theology in Asia by the Federation of the Asian Bishops ’Conferences (FABC) will also be used to further analyze the condition of plural, diverse and global cities. This paper argues that mission and the poor in the city today offer challenges and opportunities.