Hearts on Fire, Feet on the Move
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. In this Sunday's message, Pope Francis encourages us that "all of us can contribute to this missionary movement: with our prayers and activities, with material offerings and the offering of our sufferings, and with our personal witness. The Pontifical Mission Societies are the privileged means of fostering this missionary cooperation on both the spiritual and material levels. For this reason, the collection taken on World Mission Sunday is devoted to the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith."
On 6th January 2023, Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Pope Francis coined the theme of this Sunday as: "Hearts on Fire, Feet on the Move" inspired by the story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus, in the Gospel of Luke (cf. 24:13-35). Pope Francis says that while the two were on the road to Emmaus, Jesus came along and moved with them, as he always moves with us, he explained the scripture and their hearts was on fire within them, as it always should be with us when we listen to the Word of God being read to us or when we read it ourselves. "It follows that knowledge of Scripture is important for the Christian life, and even more so for the preaching of Christ and his Gospel. Otherwise, what are you passing on to others if not your own ideas and projects? A cold heart can never make other hearts burn!"
As evening drew near, Jesus sat with them on the table, took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them and immediately they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. After their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus “in the breaking of the bread”, the disciples “set out without delay and returned to Jerusalem” (cf. Lk 24:33). The Eucharist should always make us aware of the presence of Jesus among us and should, as it did with Apostles, enable us to participate in the saving mission of Jesus.
Pope Francis says that at the breaking of the bread for the Apostles, "we can recognize an essential reality of our faith: Christ, who breaks the bread, now becomes the bread broken, shared with the disciples and consumed by them. He is seen no longer, for now he has entered the hearts of the disciples, to make them burn all the more, and this prompts them to set out immediately to share with everyone their unique experience of meeting the Risen Lord. The risen Christ, then, is both the one who breaks the bread and, at the same time, the bread itself, broken for us. It follows that every missionary disciple is called to become, like Jesus and in him, through the working of the Holy Spirit, one who breaks the bread and one who is broken bread for the world."
To participate in Jesus' mission according to Pope Francis' message today, is to be first set on fire in our hearts by Scripture and Eucharist for a cold heart can never make other hearts burn. He says, "One cannot truly encounter the risen Jesus without being set on fire with enthusiasm to tell everyone about him. Therefore, the primary and principal resource of the mission are those persons who have come to know the risen Christ in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, who carry his fire in their heart and his light in their gaze. They can bear witness to the life that never dies, even in the most difficult of situations and in the darkest of moments."
"Today more than ever, our human family, wounded by so many situations of injustice, so many divisions and wars, is in need of the Good News of peace and salvation in Christ. Christians have the duty to announce it without excluding anyone, not as one who imposes a new obligation, but as one who shares a joy, signals a beautiful horizon, offers a desirable banquet." May we be set on fire so that we can set others on fire too.
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. In the first reading we see King Cyrus king of Persia participating in God’s mission (in fact he was at once considered 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 nor from the line of David where the Messiah was supposed to come from, but God used him to deliver his people. God can use anyone 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, and set our hearts on fire which will set our feet on the move? 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 to 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 for we were created in his image and likeness. 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.
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 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
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