10 We learn that God does the calling, drawing people then sending them to be living witnesses to the tender, compassionate and merciful God they have encountered and learned to trust. So, it is everyone’s call to share among the nations God’s invitation to find life’s fullness through living in transforming, light-revealing relationships. St Francis of Assisi challenges us: ‘You may be the only gospel some people will ever read’. It would be good for each of us to consider: What gospel would people read in our lives? Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Day 2022 is a wonderful summation of that: “Every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ. And the Church, the community of Christ’s disciples, has no other mission than that of bringing the Gospel to the entire world by bearing witness to Christ. To evangelize is the Church’s very identity”. [1] We come to see that to reflect the light of Christ we need first to believe that the Christ light is active in our hearts. This belief can ignite the light in others too. Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love reflects that we are all meant to let our light shine and in doing so we enable others to let their light shine. [2] Matthew 5:14-16 reminds us: ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house’. The candle lit for us at our baptism is meant to light up the whole universe. Pope Francis’ words on St Stephen’s witness to the light Our beloved Pope Francis is a living example of being a witness of light both in our church and in our world. He writes often on this theme. On the feast of St Stephen in 2022, he challenged us to see St Stephen’s witness continuing in this time and place. Stephen is the first martyr… the first witness, the first of a host of brothers and sisters who, even until today, continue to bring the light into the darkness – people who respond to evil with good, who do not succumb to violence and lies, but break the cycle of hatred with meekness and love, in the world's nights, these witnesses bring God's dawn." [3] BEARING WITNESS TO THE LIGHT There are many encounters in which one experiences, bearing witness to the light. Three such experiences in my own life include working alongside catechists whose lives bore witness to the God of Faithfulness teaching Religious Education in our government schools, the death of my youngest brother and in the energy
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