With Mission Sunday (October 19) now behind us and the Mission Month of October drawing to a close, it is good to reflect on some of the key themes that have emerged in our celebrations.
The first theme that springs to mind is Joy. As we have come to expect from Pope Francis, his Message for World Mission Sunday was infused with joy, the ‘Joy of the Gospel’, which we are all called to share.
He reminds us that in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus sends out the 72 disciples to share the Good News with those towns that he himself will soon be visiting, the disciples all returned from their mission task “filled with joy” (Luke 10:23). In his message, Pope Francis says: “The joy of the Gospel is born of the encounter with Christ and from sharing with the poor … I invite you to immerse yourself in the joy of the Gospel and nurture a love that can light up your vocation and your mission”.
What an invitation! To “immerse” myself in the joy of the Gospel. It’s an almost irresistible invitation, and of course, once I am filled with Gospel-joy, the presence of this joy becomes equally irresistible to other people I might meet. The more I reflect on it, the more I realise that in this hurried and harried and time-pressured world, where people thirst for something deeper, the spreading of joy is an essential task of mission.
The other focus for me from Mission Month has been the growing awareness within the Church community that mission is for all. The Pope tells us that: “All the members of the Church are called to participate in this mission, for the Church is missionary by her very nature: She was born ‘to go forth’”.
In this edition of ‘In the Word’ you will read of many different aspects of mission, from the story of how lay-people are leading efforts to ship much-needed equipment to missionaries, hospitals, schools and universities in Papua New Guinea, to Fr Boni’s account of his current ministry of forming new SVD missionaries. Fr Gerard Mulholland’s beautiful reflections on his missionary life, his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease and his anticipation of joy in heaven, show that mission is not just for the young and active, but the joy of the Gospel can still shine brightly through us at every stage of life.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Henry Adler SVD
Provincial
