ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ,

At Baptism, each of us is given a distinct responsibility. The Lord calls us to tell the world the "Good News" of His love and salvation. He calls us to be, in our own way, His missionaries.

On the occasion of World Mission Sunday, which we are celebrating today, Pope Benedict XVI invites you and me, and the entire People of God, to reflect on the urgency of sharing the Gospel with others. The missionary charge continues to be an absolute priority for all baptized persons because we are all called to be "servants and apostles of Christ Jesus."

Over thirty years ago Pope Paul VI beautifully stated these words: "Evangelizing is, in fact, the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). Just recently our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI pointed to Saint Paul, the Apostle of the nations, as a model of this apostolic commitment. We celebrate the life of Saint Paul, born 2000 years ago, by embracing as he did the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to others.

This special year dedicated to Saint Paul offers the opportunity for local Churches, Christian communities and the individual faithful to share the Gospel of salvation with everyone who freely chooses to listen to us. The Holy Father has affirmed that Saint Paul "understood on the road to Damascus, then experienced in his later ministry, that redemption and mission are acts of love. It was the love of Christ that impelled him to follow the roads of the Roman Empire as a herald ...of the Gospel ...It is love that must impel us to announce to all mankind, frankly and courageously, the truth that saves.... Mankind awaits Christ."

This year, World Mission Sunday also takes on an added significance as the Church here in the United States marks the 100th anniversary of a papal decree which removed the designation of "mission territory" from this country. Up until that time the generosity of European Catholics felt the need to support the Pontifical Mission Society for the Propagation of the Faith in America.

Philadelphia had been one of the first recipients of help from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Europe. Years of such financial assistance helped build thousands of parishes, schools and hospitals to serve our brothers and sisters who were in need and who hungered to hear about God’s love. The seeds of evangelization sown by these missionaries of the past have become the seeds we now sow in other missionary lands today. It is our turn to evangelize.

This year, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia honors the many missionaries from Europe who were instrumental in bringing the Lord’s gift of faith and His message of hope to our nation and Archdiocese.

Remembering the missionaries of the past who served the Church in the United States, we too must continue to embrace their spirit and zeal for spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. We also give thanks to God for the many missionaries born and formed in the faith here in our own nation and Archdiocese who have accepted the Lord's challenge to go into the whole world to evangelize. Ours is a world that is hungry for the message of God’s love and compassion, a world that is as close as the hills of Kentucky or as distant as Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and the remote regions of Latin America. Our missionaries serve in urban and rural settings, remote mission churches, schools, medical outposts and orphanages. In Africa, for example, the Church is growing rapidly because of God’s grace and the efforts of these missionaries, resulting in many native-born priests and religious. The people of mission lands are inspired by the words and actions of countless missionaries to "implore the favor of the Lord" and "go to seek the Lord," as we hear in today’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Zechariah. The missionaries’ faith and love help the people they serve to follow them, to trust them and to say: "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech 8:23).

Missionaries have wholeheartedly embraced Saint Paul’s message to the Romans: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," and they have accepted his challenge. How can people call on the Lord in whom they have not believed, and how can they believe in him whom they have not heard of? How can they hear without someone to preach, and how can they preach unless they are sent? Paul's words are a challenge to each one of us because the Church is essentially missionary and we are all meant to be missionaries in our own way.

There are many great stories to be told about the missions, even in our own rich mission history. As we pray and respond on this World Mission Sunday here in Philadelphia, we are sharing in what is taking place in every church and parish all over the world. No matter the setting for our liturgy, we know that the Lord Himself calls us and sends us to bear witness to our Catholic faith and share it with others.

Let us then take to heart the words of Jesus, repeated so often by Pope John Paul II: Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Let us set out on the vast sea of the world and, following Jesus’ invitation, let us cast our nets without fear, confident in his constant help. In today’s Gospel we also hear these words of Jesus speaking to His Father, saying: "Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth" (John 17: 17-18). With God’s word and strength, each of us can make an important missionary contribution. To be missionary means to love God with all one’s heart. To be missionary is to tend, like the Good Samaritan, to the needs of others, particularly those who are poor and marginalized. To be missionary is to offer prayers and make acts of sacrifice so that people throughout the world will come to know and love Jesus Christ and final salvation in His name.

From His being tempted in the desert and throughout His public ministry, Jesus kept close to His Father. Even in today’s Gospel, Jesus is in prayer, making a request to His Father for all of us His brothers and sisters. He lifts His eyes toward heaven in His prayer for us! Following this example, we are invited to fix our eyes on heaven and pray with Jesus. May this prayer be intensified ever more for missionaries and people everywhere, who are yearning to know Christ. For all of us prayer is the greatest spiritual means for spreading among all peoples the light of Christ, the light that illuminates the darkness.

Let us pray together in our Mass this morning for all who long to hear the hope-filled message of Jesus’ love and salvation. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI: "It becomes...indispensable for Christians on every continent to be ready to respond to whoever asks the reason for the hope that is within them (cf 1Pt 3:15), announcing the Word of God with joy and living the gospel without compromise." Let us raise our voices in prayer on this World Mission Sunday so that the message of Jesus’ love will be shared, embraced and lived.

May the Lord Jesus bless you for your prayers and financial support for the mission work of His Church.

And may our Blessed Mother Mary draw all of us closer to her divine Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and God. Amen.