Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
World Mission Sunday was established by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and is observed on the third Sunday of October which will be celebrated this year on Sunday, Oct. 23. It is a day set aside for the Catholic Church throughout the world to publicly renew its commitment to the missionary movement for prayer and propaganda of missions.
Drawing his inspiration from the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi by Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis said, “Evangelization is for no one an individual and isolated act; it is one that is deeply ecclesial… mission is carried out together, not individually, in communion with the ecclesial community, and not on one’s own initiative.”
He narrates in his message that “When the most obscure preacher, catechist or pastor in the most distant land preaches the Gospel, gathers his little community together or administers a Sacrament, even alone, he is carrying out an ecclesial act, and his action is certainly attached to the evangelizing activity of the whole Church by institutional relationships, but also by profound invisible links in the order of grace.”
Based on the ecclesial nature of the Church, the person “acts not in virtue of a mission which he attributes to himself or by a personal inspiration, but in union with the mission of the Church and in her name.”
This year’s World Mission Day themed “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:18), Pope Francis acknowledges that “it was no coincidence that the Lord Jesus sent his disciples out on mission in pairs,” since “the witness of Christians to Christ is primarily communitarian in nature. Hence, in carrying out the mission, the presence of a community, regardless of its size, is of fundamental importance.”
Pope Francis further reflects on three key phrases that synthesize the foundations of the life and mission of every disciple namely; “You shall be my witnesses,” “to the ends of the earth” and “you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Emphasizing on the aspect of being Christ’s witnesses, the Pope notes that “Christ was the first to be sent, as a “missionary” of the Father,” hence “every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ,” making the Church which is the community of Christ’s disciples to have no other mission “than that of bringing the Gospel to the entire world by bearing witness to Christ (since) evangelization “is the very identity of the Church.”
He affirms Pope Paul VI who observed that “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” thus “the testimony of an authentic Christian life is fundamental for the transmission of the faith.”
When Christ charged the disciples to proclaim the word of God “to the ends of the earth,” the Pope says in his Tuesday message, “The disciples are sent not to proselytize, but to proclaim; the Christian does not proselytize.”
He narrates that proclaiming the word of God to the ends of the earth “should challenge the disciples of Jesus in every age and impel them to press beyond familiar places in bearing witness to him.”
“Christ’s Church will continue to “go forth” towards new geographical, social and existential horizons, towards “borderline” places and human situations, in order to bear witness to Christ and his love to men and women of every people, culture and social status,” the Pope said.
On receiving power from the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis says that no Christian is able to “bear full and genuine witness to Christ the Lord without the Spirit’s inspiration and assistance,” hence “All Christ’s missionary disciples are called to recognize the essential importance of the Spirit’s work, to dwell in his presence daily and to receive his unfailing strength and guidance.