World Mission Sunday 2013

Pope Francis in his message for World Mission Sunday 2013 (20th Oct) said that our faith in Christ “is a precious gift, not reserved for a few but offered with generosity.” He added, “Everyone should be able to experience the joy of being loved by God, the joy of salvation!” This precious gift is not meant to be kept to ourselves but it has to be shared to all. When we keep it only to ourselves, “we will become isolated, sterile and sick Christians.” 

In this Year of Faith, we take the opportunity to increasingly strengthen our friendship with the Lord and open our minds and hearts to know and love Him, (cf. Porta Fidei, no. 15). Every Christian is obliged to play a role in spreading the faith, to communicate it to others, to live it in charity and to witness to it. We cannot proclaim or announce Christ without the Church. The Pope said, “Evangelisation is not an individual or private act,” but “it is always ecclesial.” He quoted what Pope Paul VI said, “When an unknown preacher, catechist or pastor preaches the Gospel, gather the little community together, administers a Sacrament, even alone, he is carrying out of an ecclesial act.” This affirms that every missionary or evangeliser is never carrying out his apostolic work alone or should never involve pressure or force. His evangelism is a part of a single Body that is a Church animated by the Holy Spirit.

On this Mission Sunday the entire Church should remember how Paul and Barnabas at the end of their first missionary journey, “reported what God had done with them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, (Acts 14:27).  Let us ask God today to make us strong in our faith, firm in our hope and persistently and courageously to “shout the Gospel by our action."