Vatican City, 14 June 2014 (VIS) –
The following is the full text of the Holy Father's message for the
188th World Mission Day, to be held on Sunday, 19 October 2014:
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today vast numbers of people still do
not know Jesus Christ. For this reason, the mission ad gentes
continues to be most urgent. 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'. World Mission Day is a
privileged moment when the faithful of various continents engage in
prayer and concrete gestures of solidarity in support of the young
Churches in mission lands. It is a celebration of grace and joy. A
celebration of grace, because the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
offers wisdom and strength to those who are obedient to his action. A
celebration of joy, because Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, sent to
evangelise the world, supports and accompanies our missionary
efforts. This joy of Jesus and missionary disciples leads me to
propose a biblical icon, which we find in the Gospel of Luke.
1. The Evangelist tells us that the
Lord sent the seventy-two disciples two by two into cities and
villages to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and to prepare
people to meet Jesus. After carrying out this mission of preaching,
the disciples returned full of joy: joy is a dominant theme of this
first and unforgettable missionary experience. Yet the divine Master
told them: 'Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you; but
rejoice because your names are written in heaven. At that very moment
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said: “I give you praise,
Father...” And, turning to the disciples in private he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see”'.
Luke presents three scenes. Jesus
speaks first to his disciples, then to the Father, and then again to
the disciples. Jesus wanted to let the disciples share his joy,
different and greater than anything they had previously experienced.
2. The disciples were filled with joy,
excited about their power to set people free from demons. But Jesus
cautioned them to rejoice not so much for the power they had
received, but for the love they had received, 'because your names are
written in heaven'. The disciples were given an experience of God’s
love, but also the possibility of sharing that love. And this
experience is a cause for gratitude and joy in the heart of Jesus.
Luke saw this jubilation in a perspective of the trinitarian
communion: 'Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit', turning to the Father
and praising him. This moment of deep joy springs from Jesus’
immense filial love for his Father, Lord of heaven and earth, who hid
these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the
childlike. God has both hidden and revealed, and in this prayer of
praise it is his revealing which stands out. What is it that God has
revealed and hidden? The mysteries of his Kingdom, the manifestation
of divine lordship in Jesus and the victory over Satan.
God has hidden this from those who are
all too full of themselves and who claim to know everything already.
They are blinded by their presumptuousness and they leave no room for
God. One can easily think of some of Jesus’ contemporaries whom he
repeatedly admonished, but the danger is one that always exists and
concerns us too. The 'little ones', for their part, are the humble,
the simple, the poor, the marginalised, those without voice, those
weary and burdened, whom Jesus pronounced 'blessed'. We readily think
of Mary, Joseph, the fishermen of Galilee and the disciples whom
Jesus called as he went preaching.
3. 'Yes, Father, for such has been your
gracious will'. These words of Jesus must be understood as referring
to his inner exultation. The word 'gracious' describes the Father’s
saving and benevolent plan for humanity. It was this divine
graciousness that made Jesus rejoice, for the Father willed to love
people with the same love that he has for his Son. Luke also alludes
to the similar exultation of Mary: 'My soul proclaims the greatness
of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Saviour'. This is the
Good News that leads to salvation. Mary, bearing in her womb Jesus,
the evangeliser par excellence, met Elizabeth and rejoiced in the
Holy Spirit as she sang her Magnificat. Jesus, seeing the success of
his disciples’ mission and their resulting joy, rejoiced in the
Holy Spirit and addressed his Father in prayer. In both cases, it is
joy for the working of salvation, for the love with which the Father
loves his Son comes down to us, and through the Holy Spirit fills us
and grants us a share in the trinitarian life.
The Father is the source of joy. The
Son is its manifestation, and the Holy Spirit its giver. Immediately
after praising the Father, so the evangelist Matthew tells us, Jesus
says: 'Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek
and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my
yoke is easy and my burden light'. 'The joy of the Gospel fills the
hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his
offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and
loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew'.
The Virgin Mary had a unique experience
of this encounter with Jesus, and thus became 'causa nostrae
laetitiae'. The disciples, for their part, received the call to
follow Jesus and to be sent by him to preach the Gospel, and so they
were filled with joy. Why shouldn’t we too enter this flood of joy?
4. 'The great danger in today’s
world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and
anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit
of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience'. Humanity greatly
needs to lay hold of the salvation brought by Christ. His disciples
are those who allow themselves to be seized ever more by the love of
Jesus and marked by the fire of passion for the Kingdom of God and
the proclamation of the joy of the Gospel. All the Lord’s disciples
are called to nurture the joy of evangelisation. The Bishops, as
those primarily responsible for this proclamation, have the task of
promoting the unity of the local Church in her missionary commitment.
They are called to acknowledge that the joy of communicating Jesus
Christ is expressed in a concern to proclaim him in the most distant
places, as well as in a constant outreach to the peripheries of their
own territory, where great numbers of the poor are waiting for this
message.
Many parts of the world are
experiencing a dearth of vocations to the priesthood and the
consecrated life. Often this is due to the absence of contagious
apostolic fervour in communities which lack enthusiasm and thus fail
to attract. The joy of the Gospel is born of the encounter with
Christ and from sharing with the poor. For this reason I encourage
parish communities, associations and groups to live an intense
fraternal life, grounded in love for Jesus and concern for the needs
of the most disadvantaged. Wherever there is joy, enthusiasm and a
desire to bring Christ to others, genuine vocations arise. Among
these vocations, we should not overlook lay vocations to mission.
There has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the
lay faithful in the Church, as well as a recognition that they are
called to take an increasingly important role in the spread of the
Gospel. Consequently they need to be given a suitable training for
the sake of an effective apostolic activity.
5. 'God loves a cheerful giver'. World
Mission Day is also an occasion to rekindle the desire and the moral
obligation to take joyful part in the mission ad gentes. A monetary
contribution on the part of individuals is the sign of a
self-offering, first to the Lord and then to others; in this way a
material offering can become a means for the evangelisation of
humanity built on love.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this
World Mission Day my thoughts turn to all the local Churches. Let us
not be robbed of the joy of evangelisation! 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. I urge each of you to recall, as
if you were making an interior pilgrimage, that 'first love' with
which the Lord Jesus Christ warmed your heart, not for the sake of
nostalgia but in order to persevere in joy. The Lord’s disciples
persevere in joy when they sense his presence, do his will and share
with others their faith, hope and evangelical charity.
Let us pray through the intercession of
Mary, the model of humble and joyful evangelisation, that the Church
may become a welcoming home, a mother for all peoples and the source
of rebirth for our world”.
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