ONE IN CHRIST, UNITED IN MISSION; Every Christian is a missionary with a message to share.
Over one billion Catholics all over the world observe today as the 100th World Mission Sunday. Pope Pius XI instituted this annual observance in 1926 by Papal decree. Every year since then, world mission sunday is Celebrated each year on the second-to-last Sunday in October, it invites Catholics across the globe to share in the Church’s missionary vocation by offering prayers, sacrifices, and financial support for mission territories where the Gospel is being proclaimed for the first time, or is still young and where resources are scarce.
And over the span of this 100 years, dioceses have been established, catechetical programs organised, seminaries built, Religious Communities erected, Chapels built, Churches built, orphanages erected, Catechists trained, hospitals and schools built. All were achieved through the support gotten from mission Sundays.
During his keynote address with St. Finbar's Old Boys this year at Akoka Lagos, Bishop Kukah stated that, The Catholic Church has illustrated that its mission is salvation, but salvation not as some inaccessible or a claim about a world that existed elsewhere. The missionaries believed that thoughts of heaven began from here on earth. They also believed it was important to equip its new converts with knowledge of heaven by offering them the tools to build a good life. Thus, almost everywhere the Catholic Church went, its missionaries sought to first offer the people education to enable them to access the word of God. The missionaries knew that education was the foundation of the good life and a good life. A good life, they thought would have come from a healthy body. This is why next to education they embarked on building Health facilities irrespective of how remote the communities were. These two key institutions became the magnet that pulled its first generation of converts, often, children first, and then their parents.
That is why today, the Catholic Church remains the largest non-governmental provider of healthcare and education on earth. The Holy See’s Central Statistical Office reports that the Catholic Church has more than 231,000 schools and universities in 171 countries, educating 72 million students. And according to the 2025 Catholic Church Statistics published by Agenzia Fides, the Catholic Church operates 103,951 healthcare, welfare and charitable institutions worldwide. It was Saint Augustine that said: “My weight is my love. Every institution reveals what it loves by what it builds.
The Church, according to Vatican Council II, is “missionary” in her very nature because her founder, Jesus Christ, was the first missionary. God the Father sent God the Son, Incarnate in Jesus, His Christ, into the world with a message of God’s love and salvation. Thus, the evangelizing mission of the Church is essentially the announcement of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation, as these are revealed to mankind through the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Every Christian is a missionary with a message to share; the message of God’s love, liberation and eternal salvation. While not all are called to travel to distant lands, all are called to support the mission of evangelization. Through prayer, sacrifice, and financial assistance, the faithful become co-workers in the spread of the Gospel and the building up of the Church.
To keep up to mission and life of witnessing, it takes 3 basic ways;
Transparent Christian life
Fervent prayers
Generous donations (charity)
TRANSPARENT CHRISTIAN LIFE; The most powerful means of fulfilling the goal of mission is by living a truly Christian life; a life filled with love, mercy, kindness, compassion, prayer and a forgiving spirit. Mahatma Gandhi used to say: “My life is my message.” He often challenged the Christian missionaries to observe the “The biological growth of the rose flower.” A rose doesn’t preach. It simply radiates its fragrance and attracts everyone to it by its irresistible beauty. Thus, the most important thing is not the Gospel we preach, but the life we live. This is how the early Christians evangelized. Their Gentile neighbors used to say: “See how they love one another!”, “They behave like Christ”. We should call them Christians. So at Anthioch the early disciples were first called Christians, because they were Christ-like.
FERVENT PRAYER; Prayer is the second means of missionary work. Jesus said: “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15: 5). Therefore, prayer is necessary for anyone who wishes to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and for everyone who preaches the Good News in his life. The Holy Spirit would help us to become witnesses of Christ only in an atmosphere of prayer. Since missionaries are weak human beings, and since witnessing to Christ through life is not easy, we need to support them by our prayers always. Remember, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”, the Lord said; “PRAY therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Lk 10: 2
GENEROUS DONATIONS (CHARITY); All missionary efforts also require financial support because the love of God can often be explained to the poor only by providing them with food and a means of livelihood. The sick can experience the healing power of Jesus only through the dedicated service of doctors, nurses, and health care workers. Building, maintaining, and staffing hospitals and nursing homes all require funding. The use of expensive modern media of communication is often necessary to bring Christ’s message of love and liberation more effectively to non-Christians in the modern world.
Finally there is a difference between “come and hear” and “go and tell” ministries. “People often say, ‘Come and hear the Gospel taught in our church’ or ‘Come and hear our evangelist or pastor preach the word.’ This ‘come and hear’ kind of religion constitutes a reversal of the Great Commission of Jesus. His instructions to his church were not to invite people to ‘come and hear,’ but for us to ‘go and tell.’ The main responsibility is not to bring the lost to the Gospel, but to take the Gospel to the lost. Met them in their state of drunkenness, in their state of helplessness, in their location of sin and vices, in their location where they carry out their evil, in their broken state. That's what the mission is all about. And at the end of this mass, I shall tell you, go forth this mass is ended. I am not telling you to go back home and step down the sunday message with sunday rice and chilled beer. But you must step it down when you gather at your town's meeting. You must step it down to your neighbour at home. You must step it down to those who are ignorant of God. And when you resume work tomorrow, you must live it out and step it down to your colleagues at work.
PEACE BE WITH YOU.
HAPPY SUNDAY
Fada Pascal
DailyDiet.
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