EDITORIAL
Announcing God’s Kindness and Joy
BY FR Rafael Armada | EDITOR
ON 24 October we celebrate World Mission Day. Every year, the Pope writes a message for that occasion and reminds us, as baptised Christians, of our call to mission. In this edition, Pope Francis invites us to share with others our personal experience of God’s love and compassion. As we deepen our awareness of being forgiven and unconditionally accepted by God, we feel prompted to joyfully announce this liberating truth to the rest of humanity.
October is also a very special month for Comboni missionaries. Apart from the feast of the patroness of the missions, St Therese of Lisieux, on the 1st of this month, we also honour our founder, St Daniel Comboni on 10 October. He was a man absolutely passionate in the spread of the Gospel. Son of his time, he believed that the Church and her sacraments were the only door to salvation. Therefore, he completely devoted his life—with words and actions—to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to those who, being far away, had never heard of His name. Providence directed him to the lands of Sudan.
On his first trip in 1857, at the age of 26, Daniel Comboni experienced what it entailed to become a missionary, parting from his country and family. He set off from home in Limone Sul Garda, in the Italian Alps, with the pain of leaving his two elderly parents, being himself their only surviving child. In February 1858, on his arrival at the mission of Holy Cross in today’s South Sudan, together with another four priests and one lay associate, he suffered severe fevers and various kinds of hardships. He encountered difficulties of communication and realised the differences in ways of life and cultures. Very soon, he witnessed the death of two of his companions. Due to ill health, he had to leave the African continent a year after his arrival. However, during those harsh months, living among various ethnic groups in Sudan, Daniel Comboni received the grace of experiencing a boundless sea of compassion and love towards those whom he saw in absolute need of the light of the Gospel. He became aware of the consequences and sacrifices of surrendering his life with immeasurable love for the peoples of Africa. Nevertheless, that love never departed from Daniel Comboni’s heart until the moment of his death in Khartoum in 1881, at the age of 50.
Today many thousands of missionaries, priests, brothers, sisters and lay people continue dedicating their lives to the spread of the Gospel. Their understanding of mission has probably evolved. Mission is now seen as a mutual dialogue between those who are sent and those who welcome the message, even if God has already encountered them prior to the arrival of the missionaries. Mission is often referred now as collaboration and partnership; but there is something that has not changed over the centuries. Mission springs from the Trinitarian love, given by the Father and manifested to us by His Son through the Holy Spirit. It is a compassionate love that springs from the hearts of millions of Christians who live out their call, and which goes back into the world. Vulnerable and wounded as they may be, they cannot but speak a word of mercy and put into practice a mission of compassion towards a wounded humanity that awaits God’s balsam of kindness and joy. Living in a society entangled with corruption, poverty, inequality and violence, the message of honesty, equity, fraternal sharing and peace that the Gospel brings is indeed needed. The call to mission is still urgent and relevant today as it has been from the onset of Christian times.