It is 18th October 2020. We celebrate the Mission Sunday on this 29th Sunday of the Ordinary time.
The readings are from Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; the second reading is from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; and the Gospel from Mt. 22:15-21.
On a Sunday morning, a pig and chicken went on a walk together near a church. They read a board on the Church informing of the Mission Sunday Program. A menu of the food items was displayed for raising money for the mission. It read, “Ham and eggs will be sold.” The chicken remarked to the pig, “See, even are helping in the mission of the Church.” The pig commented, “Yes, truly we are but yours is only a contribution but mine is a sacrifice.”
Yes, it is a day we need to contribute materially and generously but from our sacrifice during this most challenging pandemic time.
We are all here on a mission. There is no one around here without mission. The Church is on a mission to bringing all people closer to God. Our mission is to acknowledge the love of Father, the sacrifice of the Son and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit through our charity and mercy. Being loved by God inspires us to be the missionary disciples. We have received much from God freely and so it is our turn to share. “Freely you have received; freely give.” (Mt. 10:8). “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Is.6:8). Joshua carried out the mission God entrusted to him. (Josh.22:3). The prophet Samuel was sent on a mission. (1 Sam.15:20). God helped the prophet Isaiah to succeed in the mission. (Is.48:15). Barnabas and Paul were chosen by the Apostles to embark on a mission. (Acts 12:25). Mary our mother ready to be completely at the service of God’s will as Her mission.
In his message for world mission day 2020 his holiness Pope Francis teaches us, “Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church. Understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Church’s mission. Illness, suffering, fear and isolation challenge us. The poverty of those who die alone, the abandoned, those who have lost their jobs and income, the homeless and those who lack food challenge us. Being forced to observe social distancing and to stay at home invites us to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God. God continues to look for those whom he can send forth into the world and to the nations to bear witness to his love, his deliverance from sin and death, his liberation from evil (cf. Mt 9:35-38; Lk 10:1-12).”
The second Vatican teaches us, “Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (Gaudium et spes, n. 36). The Catechism reminds us, “God created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him. Catechism.” (para. 358).
In the first reading, God invites the king Cyrus on a mission to build a temple for the God’s people under captive. To serve God we do not need to know God personally. The moment we are entrusted with a mission by God, we are already known, anointed, and loved by God.
In the second reading, St. Paul strengthens the Christian community in Thessalonica in their faith commitment reminding the power of the Holy Spirit in reaching out the others. “God loves you and that you have been chosen, because when we brought the Good News to you, it came to you not only as words, but as power and as the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction.” (1 Thes.1:5).
The responsorial Psalm praises, “Give the Lord glory and power.” (Ps.96:7).
Mahatma Gandhi used to say, “My life is my message.” The mission needs the message not in words alone but in action and sincerity. Our presence and the person are the mission today. The way we relate, recreate, rediscover the avenues of love is the mission we all are expected to present during the mission. Our personal communing with God is so vital for the mission. We cannot discern the Spirit of God without being in our prayer. Our actions and active apostolates cannot replace the appointments with God.
It is time to be grateful for those missionaries who sacrificed their families, friends, relatives, likes and homeland for the sake of the mission. Let us remember those missionary priests, nuns, brothers, pastoral agents in a special way during our Eucharistic celebration.
God still counts on us to continue the mission of mercy, love, and forgiveness to all people. “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn.17:23).
In the Gospel, Jesus highlights the importance of mission by being responsible to the State and God. Jesus clarifies who has the right to receive. “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They wanted a political discussion with Jesus to trap Him as he pointed out the hostility and hypocrisy of them. Jesus seeing the coin encouraged them to respect the image and inscription and inviting them to offer themselves to God who has no image and impression. Our allegiance to God must ignore the adherence to the Ruler of the country we reside in. we are the leaven of the world who are entrusted with the mandate of making disciples of all nations. The authentic mission is be a responsibility citizen of the country and the kingdom of God. we are invited to commit our lives concretely in the social issues as well as the spiritual struggles. As the world tries its best to keep God out of our lives so subtly, Jesus reminds our mission to pay what belongs to God is the mission of every believer. We all need to rekindle and rediscover our missions entrusted by Christ by the virtue of the Sacrament of Baptism. Let us not remain complacent amidst the pain and loss during the pandemic, rather to remind ourselves that together we all can do more for the country, the Church and people around us. May our every effort be the missionary approach in reaching out to all people. We are called to respond in a crisis. In serving God as our primary duty, let us not forget our duty towards the country we belong and the rulers we need to obey is the mission we are called to display. By constantly discerning our mission according to the need of the hour, we are called to dispense it with discreet and decency.
May you have a lovely day to be a missionary in the way we are, and we can be in our families, communities and in our country. God bless you.