1- First, a goal draws us on.
2- Second,  a goal toward which we move changes our life.
3- Third, a goal which we approach always becomes clearer to us.
4- Fourth, a goal which we approach from different directions brings us closer together.

The third "place or room" in which our participation in the destiny of Christ occurs is entering the mission of Jesus Christ.

Already in his life time Jesus sent out followers. This was a symbolic sign for the great mission which the resurrected One entrusted to his disciples: the continuation of his mission into the world, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 29:19).  This is the purpose of our spiritual life - a goal that God places before us.  The type of goal intended will be developed here in the following ways:

A worthwhile goal in life exercises a dynamic power like a magnet that draws to itself.  We speak of a "destination point" when someone moves forward to an appointed task.  The power of this movement comes from the goal that draws us and determines the way ahead in order to realizee its fulfillment.  The more passionately we strive for the goal, the greater the power released in us.  We need only to look at how quickly we can become tired after a short walk.  Yet after a long hike on the same stretch we can still feel the vigor with which we began.

This applies to the exercises for the fifteenth week in a particular way.  We look at the goal before us and persist in meditative looking in order to expose ourselves more and more to the power of its attraction.  Gazing at the goal and then laying it aside and waiting for it to do something in us, is nothing other than a prayer of intention, prayer without words.  With this, one thing is certain: we can never reach such a goal in this life just as there are certain  mountain peaks we can never reach.   And yet, a goal can become significant for life even when we know that in "reaching for the sun" the sun itself remains unreachable for us.

When we have a worthy goal before us it is not so difficult to let go of other alluring ways for the sake of finding the right way, - the way that leads to the goal.  The more consistently we seek after the goal, the more important it will become for us and the more unimportant everything else will be.  The goal God places before us is that we be drawn into the great salvation story of the mission of Jesus Christ.  We will perhaps notice one day when we enter more and more into the dynamic of this goal, that a distinct shift in accent has taken place in how we communicate the Gospel to others, a change hidden until then.  Everything we do or have done for ourselves loses its importance compared to what is happening to us.  Most of the time we experience ourselves as a conduit through whom something is being done.  For that God also has a plan.  How much of the unredeemed ego is mixed into our pious activities!  How much are we still seeking the self, the development of our own possibilities, our own satisfaction, and fulfillment in everything we do as service for God?  How important is the recognition of others?  If this is true we must face it.   Perhaps, for example, we have had a powerful experience and have made an important faith discovery.  We are ready to communicate this to others immediately with a missionary zeal.  We believe that what was important to us, must also carry the same importance to everyone else for their faith journey.  Then one day we suddenly stand before the ruins of our well intentioned efforts.  We recognize and confess that what appeared to us as the only thing that was true and good based on our own experience, by no means possesses the same value for others.  Then we recognize that for every person God has a unique way.  We understand that our witness is only accepted as genuine and convincing by others when it does not require coercion or even challenging persuasion.  To accept this may be difficult at first.  Yet, in a surprising way, we find ourselves one day in an inner calm which before seemed unattainable.  We admit, indeed, we  even rejoice in the fact, that others have found their own way.  We can quietly acknowledge that other things than what we sought to communicate were experienced as helpful, even things which to us personally seemed unimportant.

Or it can happen that individuals after many years have felt irresistibly drawn to certain accomplishments (in meditation, in worship, in discussion groups or whatever).  They thought they could not live without these achievements in their Christian life, yet one day they feel a disengagement from these very things which is difficult for them to explain.  If, however, there is added to this a feeling an even more intensive zeal to do everything in their power to help others find their own joy in God, perhaps then it may dawn on them that they have finally entered into the experience of what it means to be sent.  Then one's own activity is left behind and one becomes more and more a fit tool in the hand of God who to this day sends disciples into the world.

The more intimate Jesus Christ becomes to us the clearer it is how central the word is he spoke about himself when he said: "I am the way" (John 14:6).  He does not only show us a way; he claims to be the way himself.  That is the way that bridges the gulf of endless distance between heaven and earth, God and the human.  As "true God" Christ is God's way to humanity.  As "true human" Christ leads humanity back again to God who is at the same time our origin and goal.

When we are called through the "for you" of Jesus into partnership that shares in Christ's  destiny, then this community of mission means that we each, in our place and in our own unique  way will, in this very "way" of being, be incorporated into Jesus.  Whoever is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus, that means whoever testifies to the resurrection message with their entire being perhaps even unto death, that person's life is not only a messenger but they have become in their own self a message of the resurrection.  Such a person is a bearer of God's salvation to all the world.  So each person can be a carrier of the loving message of God to the world in the situation in which he or she have been placed and become a way through which the love of God can reach people.  The same applies in the opposite direction.  As "true human" Christ has restored the original image of the human being as it was intended by God in creation.  With great joy the apostle Paul wrote, "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come." (II Cor. 5:17).  With that he takes the foregoing thoughts and extends them to every person who "is in Christ".  The more a person lives "in Christ" and enters into the partnership of Christ's mission, the more he/she will become a "new person"  and grow into the image that God originally intended and desired in creation.  The persons who respond in love with their whole life, indeed, with their entire being, to the unfathomable love of God become a response to this love as revealed in Christ.  Such a person who is oriented toward God, bound from the beginning with God in love, lives not for themselves, but  for "the Lord".  "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, so we die to the Lord" (Romans 14:8).  And then the person, who lives anew in Christ will be taken into the mighty power of God's salvation initiated by Christ that encompasses all times and places.  "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep ...In Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his [her] own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ ...When all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to everyone" I Cor. 15: 20,  22 ff., 28).

Indeed the more a person is "in Christ" the more he/she will be drawn into the all encompassing salvation of the world, at whose end all things flow again into God, the source and goal of all being.

To become a part of Christ's "way", even on a small portion of the journey, is a long since forgotten thought.  But it is biblical.  "Priestly presence" of the Christian means to return the world in our own situation which has wandered from God back again in the direction of God.  That is not only for me, but in part, also vicariously for others.  Everything in this age is and remains illustrative, symbolic.  Yet, in such a symbol part of the fulfillment that lies beyond it is already embodied.

To become a part of Christ's "way" in and through Christ - not only from light into darkness, but also from darkness into light; not only from God to people, but from people to God - is what the spiritual life is all about.  To become a disciple of the one who lived as much for the people as he lived for God is the goal of the spiritual life.

The desire of Jesus for the unity of the Church has been a concern that has run through this course.  Therefore, we want to come back to this again in the last week of exercises.  The division of the exercises into "becoming image", "becoming word" and "becoming gift" came to me almost unintentionally.  Some years ago a young Catholic priest defined the concerns of his priesthood with these words, "Make me a living Host, an offering for the people."  I recalled these words as I recently read the prayer of an Orthodox Christian woman: "Make me a living icon for the people."  What could be more appropriate than to formulate a corresponding Protestant prayer: "Make me into your living word for the people"?

God has given every person and also every Church their particular spiritual gift, not as a distinction which is exclusive, but as a possibility for fruitfully complimenting each other.  God has encouraged this with the words: "As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace" (I Peter 4:10).  Obscure theological questions still prevent the visible unity of the Church.  Nevertheless, what different churches have developed as spiritual riches through the centuries can be given right now to each other today. Therefore, this course can become a small part of the way - the way which leads to another and which leads us together to God.  The closer the rays are to the sun, the closer they are to each other.  We find this image already in the first centuries of the Church as an allegory.