Understanding mission

One of the significant words that we Salesians need to clarify and remind ourselves constantly is the word 'mission'.  Not so much that we tend to forget it but that we invariably tend to limit it to a very narrow sense and thereafter spend our whole life fulfilling this narrow limited understanding of mission! 

Unfortunately our skewed understanding of mission does not depend on those for whom we work. This danger lurks greater around those of our institutions and works that are already established and already set.  Our decisions, policies and attitudes are not appropriate because we proceed in the following order: mission - activities and works - those for whom we work. However the correct order should be: 

mission - those for whom we work - activities and works. 

What happens many a time is that the situation of those for whom we work, while not taking precedence over the mission, does not take precedence over our activities and works either!  It is not a matter of our going in search of those who can fill up our activities and works (and most often, those who do come are not necessarily the ones who need!); rather, we ought to ask ourselves: for the sake of those to whom the Lord sends us as priority, what are the activities and works we need to carry out here and now?