EDITORIAL

You shall be my witness (Acts 1: 8)

BY Rafael Armada | EDITOR

THESE WORDS from Scripture give title to Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Sunday which will be celebrated on Sunday, 23 October 2022. This year, the Church commemorates the 4th centenary of the founding of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, an Institution which “co-ordinates, organizes and promotes missionary activities” and two hundred years of the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; together with the Association of the Holy Childhood, the Society of Saint Peter the Apostle and the Pontifical Missionary Union, they form the Pontifical Missionary Societies (PMS). The work of the PMS is to support through prayers and financial aid the missionary activities of the Church and to remind Christians that we are all missionaries; and that is also the very nature of the Church.

Pope Francis unveils his message in three “key phrases that synthesize the foundations of the life and mission of every disciple”:

‘You shall be my witness’. Christians are called to bear witness to Christ, as a community of disciples, through an authentic way of life and through the proclamation of the Word. “Mission is carried out together,” says the Pope. Even if one single individual is evangelizing, he or she is doing it on behalf of the entire community. The disciples are sent to “live the mission.” Despite many difficulties encountered, the missionary vocation is a precious gift sealed under the dynamics of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

‘To the ends of the earth’. The mission of the disciples is universal. It is lived as a mutual and enriching exchange, a sharing of faith among peoples of various cultures and origins. Refugees and immigrants have, in fact, become missionary witnesses of Christ in their countries of arrival, bringing new life to the communities that welcome them. “Pastoral care of migrants should be valued as an important missionary activity that can also help the local faithful to rediscover the joy of the Christian faith they have received,” says Pope Francis. Integrating them in their midst, the receiving communities show a meaningful way of being missionaries.

“There are still geographical areas in which missionary witness of Christ has not arrived to bring the Good News of His love,” Pope Francis reminds us. The mission ad gentes, reaching out to those who do not know Christ is therefore still very relevant, even if the concept of mission has been expanded to include “social and existential horizons”.

‘You will receive power’ from the Holy Spirit. The Pope mentions that “no Christian is able to bear full and genuine witness to Christ without the Spirit’s inspiration and assistance. The Spirit, then, is the true protagonist of mission.”

The recent martyrdom of a member of our Comboni family, Sr Maria De Coppi, in Mozambique, is an example of a life totally offered to God and to the people she served. The spirit of St Daniel Comboni is alive among us as we celebrate his feast on the 10th October. May he guide us, and as he expressed in his own words, writing to Cardinal Simeoni in 1878, “our present troubles are a further proof that the work for the regeneration of Africa is God’s work.” (Writings of St Daniel Comboni, 5185).