MISSION SUNDAY 2017
This weekend throughout the world we celebrate the great missionary spirit that has brought the joy of faith to all the corners of the world. All of us know someone who has joined a missionary order or we may have come across a missionary such as Columbans, Mill Hill Fathers, St. Patricks Fathers the Medical Missionaries of Mary or whatever of course there are many other missionary religious orders who along with the Lay Missionary movements have brought the joy of the gospel and the love of God to the far flung corners of the world. God is always calling people to come and follow him and share his mission. Mission is very much part of Christian tradition. Each of us are baptized into Christ’s mission to bring his light and joy into the world where we are as well as other places. On World Mission Sunday, we renew and celebrate our calling to be missionary disciples.
We join with many people around the world to support the missionary church wherever it is being planted and taking root. We are especially mindful of the new churches or the little flocks of Jesus letting their light shine in remote and distant lands. As a little flock, the people of god are challenged to witness to Christ in those places by their life of faith, hope and love and we in our turn are challenged to support them by our prayers and other forms of practical support financial and otherwise.
God wants all people to experience his saving presence in their lives. it is through God’s grace that we have received the joy of the Gospel and then we are sent by the Holy Spirit to be ambassadors of God’s wondrous deeds in all we do and say. Will we accept the invitation to join in God’s mission by our prayers and material support of those who are out there on the missions? The great Irish missionary tradition was the fruit not just of great missionaries, but of humble men and women at home who gave and are giving generously to support the missions through the missionary Orders and other organisations such as the Apostolic Work.
Christian discipleship and missionary endeavour which we celebrate today are alive and active spiritual apostolate and there is much work out there for everyone to do. This type of service should continue in the Church when that happens we will be a truly missionary people. To be servant in the way that Jesus was means that we should live in complete trust that God loves us and this will help us to pass his love on to others in an ever changing world. Let us pass on the Joy of the Gospel and the love of the father to those we meet wherever we are as we live out our vocation to be missionary people.
Our annual celebration of Mission Sunday gives us the opportunity to acknowledge all those faithful missionary men and women religious and lay from all over the world who left everything behind in order to bring the light of faith to the far corners of the world. We pray that the Lord of the harvest will continue to inspire many people to join the missionary orders as well as the lay missionary associations so that the love of God and the joy of the Gospel may be passed on to each generation in its turn.
Fullerton T 