Which priests do we need? To form missionary pastorsDOMUND 2020: different campaign, same objective"When we experience the power of God's love, when we recognize his Fatherly presence in our personal and community life, we cannot help but proclaim and share what we have seen and heard.". With these words begins the the Holy Father's message for World Mission DayThe event, which is celebrated every year on the penultimate Sunday of October, was signed on January 6, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, in St. John Lateran.
Francis recalls that "Jesus' relationship with his disciples, his humanity revealed to us in the mystery of the incarnation, in his Gospel and in his Passover, show us to what extent God loves our humanity and makes our joys and sufferings, our desires and our anxieties his own.". He adds:
"Everything in Christ reminds us that the world in which we live and its need for redemption is not alien to him and also summons us to feel an active part of this mission: 'Go out to the crossroads of the roads and invite all whom you meet.' No one is a stranger, no one can feel strange or distant to this love of compassion".
A passionate search for the Lord
Francis recalls that "the history of evangelization begins with a passionate search for the Lord who calls and wants to enter into a dialogue of friendship with each person, wherever he finds himself."and that "love is always on the move and sets us on the move to share the most beautiful and hopeful announcement".
We have been created for fullness
The Holy Father writes that "with Jesus we have seen, heard and felt that things can be different". He adds that "He inaugurated, already for today, the times to come, reminding us of an essential characteristic of our being human, so often forgotten: 'We were made for the fullness that can only be attained in love'. New times that give rise to a faith capable of promoting initiatives and forging communities based on men and women who learn to take charge of their own fragility and that of others, promoting fraternity and social friendship.".
"The ecclesial community shows its beauty every time it gratefully remembers that the Lord first loved us. That 'loving predilection of the Lord surprises us, and wonder - by its very nature - we can neither possess it for ourselves nor impose it. Only in this way can the miracle of gratuitousness, the gratuitous gift of self, flourish."
After alluding to the difficult times that the early Christians went through when they began their life of faith in a hostile and complicated environment, the Holy Father recalls that ".limits and impediments also became a privileged place to anoint everything and everyone with the Spirit of the Lord.".
"Nothing and no one could be left out of this liberating announcement."
The Pope refers to the Acts of the Apostles and writes that ".teaches us to live through trials by embracing Christ, to mature in the conviction that God can act in any circumstance, even in the midst of apparent failures.".
A difficult moment in our history
"And so do we - continues the Pope in his message - Nor is the current moment in our history an easy one. The pandemic situation highlighted and amplified the pain, loneliness, poverty and injustices that so many were already suffering and exposed our false securities and the fragmentations and polarizations that silently lacerate us.".
"The most fragile and vulnerable experienced even more their vulnerability and fragility. We experienced discouragement, disenchantment, weariness, and even conformist and hopeless bitterness could take hold of our gazes."
And to the question: "Why should I deprive myself of my securities, comforts and pleasures if I am not going to see any significant results?"The answer - Francis writes - remains the same:
"Jesus Christ has triumphed over sin and death and is full of power. Jesus Christ is truly alive and wants us to be alive, fraternal and capable of hosting and sharing this hope. In today's context, missionaries of hope are urgently needed who, anointed by the Lord, are capable of prophetically reminding us that no one is saved on his own".
Get involved in the transformation of the world
He also writes that "Christians cannot keep the Lord to themselves: the Church's evangelizing mission expresses her total and public involvement in the transformation of the world and in the care of creation.".
Acknowledgment and invitation
The Pope, recalling the theme of this year's World Mission Day, ".We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard.", affirms that "is an invitation to each of us to 'take charge' and make known what we have in our heart". And he affirms that "On World Mission Day, which is celebrated every year on the penultimate Sunday of October, we gratefully remember all those people who, with their life witness, help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel.".
"We especially remember those who were able to set out on the road, to leave their land and their homes so that the Gospel could reach without delay and without fear those corners of towns and cities where so many lives are thirsting for blessing."
"To live the mission is to venture to develop the same feelings of Jesus Christ and to believe with Him that whoever is at my side is also my brother and sister.". "May your love of compassion - writes the Pope at the end of his message - also awaken our hearts and make us all missionary disciples.".
The Pope concludes his message by invoking the Mother of God to make this desire grow in us:
"May Mary, the first missionary disciple, make grow in all the baptized the desire to be salt and light in our lands."
