Isaiah 45:1.4-6,
Ps 96: 1 and 3.4-5.7-8.9- 10a (R. 7b),
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b,
Matthew 22:15-21 Full Readings
Saint LukeWHOM SHALL I SEND?
Today we celebrate World Mission Sunday. It's the one Sunday in the year which occurs in October (missionary month) when the entire global Church comes together to support the mission. And every single donation from these worldwide Masses goes to support churches, hospitals, schools and vocations in countries where the Church is new, young or poor. “Every Catholic community, in every country, sends a powerful message of faith, hope and love on this special day.” This is our chance to show love and solidarity to our global Church family. Through our prayers, we support missionaries everywhere in spreading the Good News. And by donating we respond to Christ’s call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
On the occasion of the extraordinary moment of prayer on 27 March 2020, Pope Francis coined the theme of this Sunday as Whom Shall I send? He expressed that even in the disorientation and fear provoked by the current international crisis and pandemic, the Lord continues to ask “Whom shall I send?” Even as we touch our frailty in the pain and death we are experiencing, we are also reminded “of our deep desire for life and liberation from evil”. This is where the call to mission emerges as an “invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbour” through “service and intercessory prayer”
Before Vatican II, mission was only for the clergy but after Vatican II all the baptized became agents of mission and Pope Francis says that this mandate stems from Jesus Christ who was himself a missionary. God still manifests his love today and we have to be instruments of this love to others by giving ourselves to others, showing love, mercy, doing charity especially in this pandemic. Pope also invites us to understand what God is saying during this time of Pandemic and what he is asking me to do. He invites us to reach out to those whom this pandemic has affected in one way or other. As people die alone or are abandoned, as others lost their jobs, with the necessity of social distancing or saying at home, the Pope says that we are invited “to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God.”
Today we are invited to respond to the question which God still asks, “Whom shall I send?” Our response as Christians should be, “Here I am Lord, send me” (Is 6:8). The Pope invites us today to reaffirm through prayer, reflection and material help our active participation in Jesus’s mission in His Church. Therefore, brethren, today ask yourself, “What is My Mission?” Is it caring or visiting the sick? Is it supporting others in mission? Is it feeding the hungry, giving the needy, caring for the abandoned and marginalized? Is it being a good Christian of virtues like charity? What is your Mission? When we fulfil our mission, we are participating in the universal mission of God which is to save all humanity by restoring their dignity, freedom, their life and at last inherit eternal life.
In the first reading we see King Cyrus king of Persia participating in God’s mission (in fact he was a messiah and a deliverer according to the Jews) of liberating them from the Babylonian exile. Through him, the Jews gained freedom and went to their promised land again. Cyrus was neither a Jew or from the line of David where the Messiah was supposed to come from but God used him to deliver his people. Brethren, God can use anybody including me and you to deliver his people and bring them to life. The question is, are we ready to respond to God’s call, whom shall I send? This is enough for us to participate in God’s mission as king Cyrus did.
In this mission, we have to give our whole self, mind, soul and body to God so that God uses them for mission. In the Gospel we see pharisees approaching Jesus and asking him if it is right to pay taxes to the Ceasar. Getting a coin and asking them whose picture was on the coin he tells them that, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. Brethren, what belongs to God is the whole of ourselves. When we give out ourselves to participate in the mission of God, we have really acted the way we are supposed to do. Caesar here may represent the world and we are invited to make our priority to God first and then we shall manage this world, otherwise if we give priority to the world, then the world will manage us and we are doomed to destruction.
What are the things I Want to Give to God? Let’s stop here for a moment, and consider and specify what kinds of things we have chosen to give to God. To make a free gift not rooted in justice or duty is an act of generosity and love. If you have given some of your belongings to God, call them to mind now. Talk to Jesus about it. Maybe you have given your talent to Jesus. Once more, reaffirm that gift. Or have you contributed your time? Conversely, are there things you have given over to God that you keep retracting? Look at these also, ponder them, and talk to Jesus about it. Ask for the grace to once again place them in Jesus’s loving, open hands.
Loving God by giving to him our thoughts, words, actions, time, talents, and sufferings is an act more beautiful than we realize. It might feel like mere renunciation. But when we bring those treasures into the light of God, he lets them shine and sparkle. Handing them to God makes them even more precious. Hence, giving God what belongs to him warrants a celebration, because we don't lose out; rather, we receive it back in greater splendor, even one-hundred fold. As Jesus told St. Catherine of Siena,“...here they receive the fire of divine charity figured by the number of a hundred... And because they have received this hundredfold from Me, they possess a wonderful and hearty joy, for there is no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the heart large and generous, not narrow or double” (Dialogue of St. Catherine).
Reflect today on your mission in this world. Are you fulfilling you mission in this world? How can you participate more in the saving mission of God? Are you ready to answer the question, whom shall I send? Are you ready to give your whole self to God to serve him and his people? Pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten you as you reflect on these questions. Don’t forget to pray for all the missions in the world remembering that we are all missionaries and are supposed to carry out our mission. When we do this, God will rejoice in us as St Paul in the second reading rejoices in the Thessalonians by thanking God for their so enormous faith.
Let us Pray.
God our Father, you desire all men and women to be saved and come to the knowledge of your truth. Send workers to your harvest that the gospel may be preached to every creature. May your people, gathered together by the word of life and strengthened by the power of the sacraments, advance in the way of salvation and love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
BLESSED SUNDAY
No comments:
Post a Comment