Mission Sunday

Mission Sunday 2010

We pray today for the approximately 2000 Irish missionaries around the world today.
If you have heard any good news lately, then you want to spread it around – someone expecting a child for the first time, the birth of a first grandchild, the engagement of someone, the announcement of a wedding date, a successful job interview, the appointment to a permanent job, and so on. Like the story of the Chilean miners recently, the world was gripped by this good news story, a break from the recession, job losses, spiraling debt, corruption in high places which we are so tired of hearing about. The good news distracts us, cheers us and uplifts us.

Good news we hear too can concern love. When someone who is in love – you can see it in their eyes, their face lights up at the mention of the name of the loved one. The attitude of someone in love changes their perspective, their outlook on life, their attitude and their mood. They have found life’s purpose and meaning.
Today is about both of these – Good News and Love. Spreading the knowledge and love of God is the call of mission. Missionaries not only spread the Good News of Jesus, but the joy that this knowledge brings. Jesus is a Person who makes a difference in the life of the missionary and the witness of their love sets others on fire to know what their ‘secret’ is.

Going back to the rescue of the Chilean miners for a moment, we see their rescue, their joy, their tears of gratitude at being delivered form the pit. This is the joy we should feel at the rescue that we have received from the darkness of sin and evil. Christ is our rescuer.

The pity is that so many of us are indifferent to this and that so many more are ignorant of it.

The Gospel teaches us today of the urgency of the message of salvation. Missionaries are reminded that it is God’s work they are carrying out; that God will provide; that lightness of foot is better accomplished by detachment, and more terrain can be covered in a shorter time. A greater impact can be made by these ‘terms of employment’. We must all strive not to be unduly distracted by worry, and anxiety over worldly goods that may harden our hearts and may get in the way of effective preaching of the saving message of the Gospel.

We are called to mission, but we cannot give what we do not have. Do WE believe that Jesus Christ is worth knowing and loving? That it is worth the effort to try to get to know Him better and to love Him and to fall in love with Him? That life is all the more worth living because we are loved by Him? And that message is likewise to be passed on to all people to hear?

Finally while we may never go on the missions ourselves we are called a great mission in life of making Jesus better known and loved among our own aswell.