Pope Benedict XVI said that World Mission Sunday is an opportunity
for Catholics to to reflect on the Church's mission to bring Christ's
message and love to “every people, culture, race and nationality.”
Authentic Christian mission recognizes that God's love cross all
geographical borders and boundaries of culture, the Pope said in a
message prepared for the annual day of prayer and promotion of the
Church’s missionary activity, to be celebrated this year on Oct. 24.
“The Father calls us to be sons and daughters, loved in the beloved
Son, and to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in (Christ),
who is the gift of salvation for humanity,” the Pope reflected.
The Pope said that while “discord and sin” divide humanity, members
of the Church are called to bear witness by the example of their lives
and to promote a “new humanism founded on the Gospel of Jesus.” The
demonstration of authentic love, he said, gives credibility to the words
of the Gospel, both in its historic centers and in remote lands.
This proclamation of God's love in Christ, he emphasized, is “a duty
of the whole Church” which is “by her very nature missionary.” While
some individuals experience a particular call to proclaim this message
as clergy, catechists, or lay missionaries, others participate in the
universal mission to “offer signs of hope and to become universal
brethren.” In all circumstances, he said, “the Gospel is a leaven of
freedom and progress” and “a source of brotherhood.”
Pope Benedict stressed that the task of foreign missions “cannot be
fulfilled without a … community and pastoral conversion” involving “all
diocesan and parish communities.”
The local church's celebration of the
Eucharist, he explained, both calls and enables its members “to promote
the proclamation of the Gospel in the heart of … every people, culture,
race and nationality in every place.”
Pope Benedict expressed special gratitude of “missionaries who bear
witness to the coming of the Kingdom of God in the most remote and
challenging places, often with their lives.”
Describing them as the
“vanguard of the Gospel's proclamation,” he urged all members of the
Church to support the work of the Pontifical Missionary Societies
through prayer and the gift of their resources.
SIC: CNA/INT'L