ABSTRACT

Scriptures portray God's saving activity in the world in many ways, including the fact that God is shaping a people, an inclusive Church-Family for himself. This boundless love of God becomes clearer in Luke's Gospel and in its Isaiah's mosaic- precursor that says, "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:5-6; Isaiah 40: 4-5). Recognizing the pastoral challenges facing the Church-family in Africa today and using Luke’s Gospel as its textual point of departure, this paper intertextually explores the various theological, metaphorical and missionary dimensions of this Isaianic-Lukan saying. It illustrates the unity and the prophetic mission demanded of contemporary Church-Family in Africa, especially in this era of the Pontificate of Pope Francis.