MISSION SUNDAY
As a Church, let’s step into the uncomfortable together and let love speak there
As a church, we join together to celebrate the centenary since the World Mission was declared by Pope Pius XI in 1926.
A global day of prayer in solidarity with the Catholic Church’s missionary work and mission territories. Pope Leo states,
“Through baptism, each of us becomes a member of the Body of Christ and has a unique role in Jesus’ saving work.
Our Lord calls us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to cooperate as one family to bring everyone everywhere into a
Communion of faith in Christ.” On this World Mission Sunday, as a Church, let’s step into the uncomfortable together
and let love speak there.
The Readings this Sunday remind us that we belong to God. In our First reading from the Prophet Isaiah, God said, “I
have called you by your name.” In the Gospel, Jesus said, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give what belongs
to God.” We are all recipients of God’s goodness, God’s generosity; without God we are nothing. On this World Mission
Sunday, let’s open our door, so that we get connected to the unknown out there and to feel the uncomfortable.
The Church is calling us to be united in mission. For us to have an effective mission, we need to listen and to learn from
our Lord himself. He knows the unknown; he knows the feeling of the uncomfortable, as he was with them and even
now he is with them. It is for you and me to get used to the uncomfortable so that we bring love and make it known to
all.
The Church's mission for me personally is to patch the wounds, to water the dry, to lighten the darkness, to listen to
the voiceless, and to be with the abandoned. It is important to have an effective mission first and foremost in our
homes. There are wounds there that need to be patched up. There are dry areas that need water and even darkness
that needs the light. If we know how to do these from home, it will be easy for us when we go beyond our comfort
zones. At least, we know what to do when we step into the uncomfortable zone. That is how we proclaim love; that is
how we let love speak and be experienced by all.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate the Centenary of the World Mission Sunday, let us keep in our prayers
the many missionaries who step into the uncomfortable zones. They go beyond themselves to witness the love of God
to the world. Let us pray for the Church, so that through her missionaries, the love of God may be experienced and
seen by all. Together as a Church, let us patch the wounds of our time; let us continue to water the dry, so that love
grows and bears fruit. Above all, let’s step into the uncomfortable together and let love speak there.