In asking the Church to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month this October, Pope Francis is calling each one of us to live out our baptismal calling to carry forward the mission of Jesus Christ, says Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD.

Fr Truc is the Mission Secretary for the Divine Word Missionaries’ AUS Province, a job which entails both living and promoting Christ’s mission locally and internationally.

Throughout the month of October this year the Universal Church is celebrating Extraordinary Missionary Month (EMM) which includes World Mission Sunday, on 20^th October.

The passage from Paul offered in today’s liturgy is at the very heart of his Letter to the Romans. Behind the statement that the human person needs to be redeemed, there is the conviction that guilt taints our relationship with God.

The common thread in the Scripture readings for today is the great theme of life. To Abraham – at the sunset of his earthly journey according to the story of Genesis, without hope of seeing the promise of a descendant realized - God confirms that biological barriers will not get in the way of his divine plan.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus foresees the various contexts in which his apostles will be witnesses to him, including the possibility that they will encounter hostile reactions.

On this Feast of St Luke, we listen to Paul’s letter to his trusted emissary Timothy, in which he complains that he has no one to travel with, except for Luke.

Paul brings his presentation in Rom 1:18-3:20 to a close with a dramatic statement: “Jews and Greeks alike … are all under the domination of sin” (Rom 3:9).

In the first reading, Paul, addressing the believers of Rome, insists that the Jews, like the pagans, commit evil. Indeed, he points to how easily the Jews accuse the pagans of immortality, basking in the conviction of being better than others because of their total observance of the Law.

In the first reading, the loss to which humanity has condemned itself against the will of God is re-read by St. Paul through a sort of history of sin that he offers to the believers of Rome. Created by God for truth and justice, the human person turned to impiety and injustice.

The Liturgy of the Word today focuses on the power of the proclamation of the Gospel. The proclaimed word of God is pregnant with salvation; we must be willing to welcome it and to listen to it.