Today the Church
celebrates World Mission Sunday. We know
this by the second collection that will be taken up for the Church’s missions
throughout the world.
The need is
great to continue to spread the Gospel message through out the world. So many people have not yet heard the Good News
of Jesus Christ, his message of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness – His promise
of salvation and eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom.
They do not know,
as we know, that they are God’s beloved children –
- Called to live in peace and harmony
- Called into the embrace of God’s love and mercy
- Called to live with dignity and respect
- Called to be holy; working to make saints of one another
- Called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world
- Called to bring hope, healing and freedom
- Called to know and love the one true God
There is
darkness in the world, dark places where God is unknown. Places where God’s love has yet to reach. Places where hope, love, mercy and
forgiveness are unspoken. It is our
mission to bring the Light of Christ into these dark places.
- To speak of God’s love and mercy for all people
- To give hope to the despairing
- To bring peace to the troubled
- To heal our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ who have:
- Never felt God’s love,
- Never known God’s embrace
- Never tasted the goodness of God's gift of life as His beloved child
So many of our
brothers and sisters in Christ know only hardship and despair in this world.
They suffer – poverty, starvation, exploitation, slavery, illiteracy, unsafe
living and working conditions – which condemns them, especially women and
children, to the very bottom of the human condition – offering them no hope and
little opportunity for survival.
This world
offers them little, but we, through our missionary support, can bring them hope
– hope in the knowledge that they are loved and that God listens to their cries
of anguish and despair. God hears the cries of the poor.
So many others
worship false gods or no god at all.
They know only
- gods of their own making,
- gods who cannot love, who cannot care,
- gods who cannot heal or bring peace.
We are called to
bring the knowledge of our living God into their lives. To show them the God who loves his children
and wants them to live with Him eternally in heaven. Through the Word of God, we bring the Good
News into these dark places; spreading the Light of Christ, dispelling the darkness
and giving hope of a Life Eternal in the peace of God’s Kingdom to those who
know only the confines of this world.
A few days ago a
remarkable woman passed away. She was
known as Madre Antonia (Mother Antonia) and she was one of those missionaries
who brought the Light of Christ into dark places. Mother Antonia lived in La Mesa penitentiary
in Tijuana, Mexico. She was not a
prisoner, but a nun who took private vows and served both the prisoners and
guards in one of the worst prisons in the world.
Living in a 10 X
10 cell, sleeping on a prison cot with a bible and a Spanish dictionary, she
brought hope and spiritual guidance to the very least of God’s children.
Mother Antonia
was called to her missionary life of service through an encounter with the
Risen Christ. She was blessed and given
the grace to live as the Lord himself lived – in service to sinners, the miserable
and forgotten; bringing them knowledge of God’s love and mercy.
We may never
have such an encounter with Christ as did Mother Antonia, but we can always
hope. Meanwhile, we can support the work
of missionaries like Mother Antonia and like so many courageous others who
bring the Word of God into the dark places of the world.
Please give
generously to support missionaries and as the parable in Luke’s Gospel today
reminds us: Persevere in Prayer, God hears the cries of the poor and brings
them His justice. ~ Amen
Peace,
Deacon Don Ron
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