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Pope Benedict XVI - Messages |
"Servants and Apostles of Christ Jesus"
Message of the Holy Father Benedict XVI
For 82nd World Mission Sunday
To be celebrated October 19, 2008
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of the World Mission Day, I would like to invite you
to reflect on the continuing urgency to proclaim the Gospel also in
our times. The missionary mandate continues to be an absolute
priority for all baptized persons who are called to be "servants and
apostles of Christ Jesus" at the beginning of this millennium. My
venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI, already stated in
the Apostolic Exhortation "Evangelii Nuntiandi": "Evangelizing is in
fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest
identity" (n. 14). As a model of this apostolic commitment, I would
like to point to St Paul in particular, the Apostle of the nations,
because this year we are celebrating a special Jubilee dedicated to
him. It is the Pauline Year which offers us the opportunity to
become familiar with this famous Apostle who received the vocation
to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles, according to what the Lord
had announced to him: "Go, I shall send you far away to the
Gentiles" (Acts 22: 21). How can we not take the opportunity that
this special Jubilee offers to the local Churches, the Christian
communities and the individual faithful to propagate the
proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the world, the power of
God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Cf. Rm 1: 16)?
Humanity is in need of liberation
Humanity needs to be liberated and redeemed. Creation itself - as St
Paul says - suffers and nurtures the hope that it will share in the
freedom of the children of God (cf. Rm 8: 19-22). These words are
true in today's world too. Creation is suffering. Creation is
suffering and waiting for real freedom; it is waiting for a
different, better world; it is waiting for "redemption". And deep
down it knows that this new world that is awaited supposes a new
man; it supposes "children of God".
Let us take a closer look at the situation of today's world. While,
on the one hand, the international panorama presents prospects for
promising economic and social development, on the other it brings
some great concerns to our attention about the very future of man.
Violence, in many cases, marks the relations between persons and
peoples. Poverty oppresses millions of inhabitants. Discrimination
and sometimes even persecution for racial, cultural and religious
reasons drive many people to flee from their own countries in order
to seek refuge and protection elsewhere. Technological progress,
when it is not aimed at the dignity and good of man or directed
towards solidarity-based development, loses its potentiality as a
factor of hope and runs the risk, on the contrary, of increasing
already existing imbalances and injustices. There is, moreover, a
constant threat regarding the man-environment relation due to the
indiscriminate use of resources, with repercussions on the physical
and mental health of human beings. Humanity's future is also put at
risk by the attempts on his life, which take on various forms and
means.
Before this scenario, "buffeted between hope and anxiety... and
burdened down with uneasiness" ("Gaudium et Spes", n. 4), with
concern we ask ourselves: What will become of humanity and creation?
Is there hope for the future, or rather, is there a future for
humanity? And what will this future be like? The answer to these
questions comes to those of us who believe from the Gospel. Christ
is our future, and as I wrote in the Encyclical Letter "Spe Salvi",
his Gospel is a "life-changing" communication that gives hope,
throws open the dark door of time and illuminates the future of
humanity and the university (cf. n. 2).
St Paul had understood well that only in Christ can humanity find
redemption and hope. Therefore, he perceived that the mission was
pressing and urgent to proclaim "the promise of life in Christ
Jesus" (2 Tm 1: 1), "our hope" (1 Tm 1: 1), so that all peoples
could be co-heirs and co-partners in the promise through the Gospel
(cf. Eph 3: 6). He was aware that without Christ humanity is
"without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2: 12) - "without
hope because they were without God" ("Spe Salvi," n. 3). In fact,
"anyone who does not know God, even though he may entertain all
kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope
that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph 2: 12)" (ibid., n. 27).
The Mission is a question of love
It is therefore an urgent duty for everyone to proclaim Christ and
his saving message. St Paul said, "Woe to me if I do not preach it
[the Gospel]!" (1 Cor 9: 16). On the way to Damascus he had
experienced and understood that the redemption and the mission are
the work of God and his love. Love of Christ led him to travel over
the roads of the Roman Empire as a herald, an apostle, a preacher
and a teacher of the Gospel of which he declared himself to be an
"ambassador in chains" (Eph 6: 20). Divine charity made him "all
things to all, to save at least some" (1 Cor 9: 22). By looking at
St Paul's experience, we understand that missionary activity is a
response to the love with which God loves us. His love redeems us
and prods us to the missio ad gentes. It is the spiritual energy
that can make the harmony, justice and communion grow among persons,
races and peoples to which everyone aspires (cf. "Deus Caritas Est",
n. 12). So it is God, who is Love, who leads the Church towards the
frontiers of humanity and calls the evangelizers to drink "from the
original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart
flows the love of God" ("Deus Caritas Est", n. 7). Only from this
source can care, tenderness, compassion, hospitality, availability
and interest in people's problems be drawn, as well as the other
virtues necessary for the messengers of the Gospel to leave
everything and dedicate themselves completely and unconditionally to
spreading the perfume of Christ's charity around the world.
Evangelize always
While the first evangelization continues to be necessary and urgent
in many regions of the world, today a shortage of clergy and a lack
of vocations afflict various Dioceses and Institutes of consecrated
life. It is important to reaffirm that even in the presence of
growing difficulties, Christ's command to evangelize all peoples
continues to be a priority. No reason can justify its slackening or
stagnation because "the task of evangelizing all people constitutes
the essential mission of the Church" (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation
"Evangelii Nuntiandi", n. 14). It is a mission that "is still only
beginning and we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its
service" (John Paul II, Encyclical "Redemptoris Missio", n. 1). How
can we not think here of the Macedonian who appeared to Paul in a
dream and cried, "Will you come by to Macedonia to help us?". Today
there are countless people who are waiting for the proclamation of
the Gospel, those who are thirsting for hope and love. There are so
many who let themselves be questioned deeply by this request for aid
that rises up from humanity, who leave everything for Christ and
transmit faith and love for Him to people! (cf. "Spe Salvi", n. 8).
Woe to me if I do not preach it! (1 Cor 9: 16)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, "duc in altum"! Let us set sail in the
vast sea of the world and, following Jesus' invitation, let us cast
our nets without fear, confident in his constant aid. St Paul
reminds us that to preach the Gospel is no reason to boast (cf. 1
Cor 9: 16), but rather a duty and a joy. Dear brother Bishops,
following Paul's example, many each one feel like "a prisoner of
Christ for the Gentiles" (Eph 3: 1), knowing that you can count on
the strength that comes to us from him in difficulties and trials. A
Bishop is consecrated not only for his diocese, but for the
salvation of the whole world (cf. Encyclical "Redemptoris Missio",
n. 63). Like the Apostle Paul, a Bishop is called to reach out to
those who are far away and do not know Christ yet or have still not
experienced his liberating love. A Bishop's commitment is to make
the whole diocesan community missionary by contributing willingly,
according to the possibilities, to sending priests and laypersons to
other Churches for the evangelization service. In this way, the
missio ad gentes becomes the unifying and converging principle of
its entire pastoral and charitable activity.
You, dear priests, the Bishops' first collaborators, be generous
pastors and enthusiastic evangelizers! Many of you in these past
decades have gone to the mission territories following the
Encyclical "Fidei Donum" whose 50th anniversary we celebrated
recently, and with which my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of
God Pius XII, gave an impulse to cooperation between the Churches. I
am confident that this missionary tension in the local Churches will
not be lacking, despite the lack of clergy that afflicts many of
them.
And you, dear men and women religious, whose vocation is marked by a
strong missionary connotation, bring the proclamation of the Gospel
to everyone, especially those who are far away, through consistent
witness to Christ and radical following of his Gospel. Dear faithful
laity, you who act in the different areas of society are all called
to take part in an increasingly important way in spreading the
Gospel. A complex and multiform areopagus thus opens up before you
to be evangelized: the world. Give witness with your lives that
Christians "belong to a new society which is the goal of their
common pilgrimage and which is anticipated in the course of that
pilgrimage" ("Spe Salvi", n. 4).
Conclusion
Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the celebration of World Mission Day
encourage everyone to take renewed awareness of the urgent need to
proclaim the Gospel. I cannot fail to point out with sincere
appreciation the contribution of the Pontifical Mission Societies to
the Church's evangelizing activity. I thank them for the support
they offer to all the Communities, especially the young ones. They
are a valid instrument for animating and forming the People of God
from a missionary viewpoint, and they nurture the communion of
persons and goods between the different parts of the Mystical Body
of Christ. May the collection that is taken in all the parishes on
World Mission Day be a sign of communion and mutual concern among
the Churches. Lastly, may prayer be intensified ever more in the
Christian people, the essential spiritual means for spreading among
all peoples the light of Christ, the "light par excellence" that
illuminates "the darkness of history" ("Spe Salvi", n. 49). As I
entrust to the Lord the apostolic work of the missionaries, the
Churches all over the world and the faithful involved in various
missionary activities and invoke the intercession of the Apostle
Paul and Holy Mary, "the living Ark of the Covenant", the Star of
evangelization and hope, I impart my Apostolic Blessing to everyone.
From the Vatican, 11 May 2008
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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