“Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples”
This is the call for Mission Sunday in this year of Jubilee gifted by the Late Pope Francis, and taken up by Pope Leo XIV. We are all to be missionaries of hope among all peoples.
I wonder if we have any idea at times of how ‘missionary’ we are each and every day. You may have no idea of the impact of your reconciling word when speaking to a work colleague. Do you realise that when you speak a soothing word in a heated discussion with your spouse, that your child recognises that differences don’t need to lead to divisions? Do we see that when we have a habit of not gossiping people will come to trust our discretion and know of a safe haven to share their issues in a time.
In these simple ways, and in many more, we bring hope into the world. Hope founded on the way Jesus has shown us how to respond to life’s joys and challenges. In being able to live differently and fully, we bring light, we bring space, we bring joy, we bring the seeds of the possibility of how life can be truly lived.
Mission Sunday reminds us that there are fellow disciples who have dedicated their lives to the proclamation of the Gospel in places which are known in the Church as ‘New Particular Churches’. Yes, New Zealand is one such place! We are still considered a missionary territory. And there are parts of Europe which are now part of the New Evangelisation. Yes, countries once considered the backbone of Catholicism, who need the Gospel to be proclaimed, as if for the first time by faithful women and men from Asia, Africa, and South America.
I have often heard words of appreciation spoken by families in retirement villages and in hospitals in regards staff who are Catholic. They speak of the love and care received by their elderly or sick relations from staff members who have originally come from other parts of the world. I remember being stopped in a hospital corridor by someone I didn’t know. She asked, “Are you a Catholic Priest?” When I said yes, she went on to say that the greatest testimony to the possibility of believing in Jesus was when receiving care from hospital staff who discreetly wore a crucifix, and showed their love of God, through their care of patients. Hope came, not only of physical healing, but of living a new way, the way we know to be of the Gospel.
Thank you all for being missionaries of hope! Prayers, Patrick
