The Pope's Intentions: The Holy Father has asked us to pray in this month ‘that the laity and Christian Communities embrace their role in promoting vocations’. The following article first appeared as the sermon preached on Mission Sunday in August 2008, and in celebrating Irish Missionary Endeavour it speaks eloquently of why we all should promote vocations if that vital work is to continue.
Our Mass on Mission Sunday celebrates the work of missionaries across the world – the traditional work of priests, sisters and brothers who have helped people worldwide hear the word of God in their hearts and experience it in their lives; the work of dedicated lay people who have contributed to building up all that people need for living a decent life; the work of the thousands of volunteers who spend their summer holidays in less-developed countries helping people enjoy a more human life; the generosity and support of the Irish people and Misean Cara and the magnificent way they want to share with others what they themselves have received - the word of God, the good things of the earth, human dignity.
We think of all of them today and we thank God for all of them. Each in their own way has been sent so that in the words of St. Paul, ‘their voice has gone out through all the earth, their message to the ends of the world’ (Rom. 10:18).
Centuries ago, Saint Irenaeus told us that the real glory of God appears in a person who is fully alive. This is what missionary presence and activity are all about, helping people become fully alive so that God’s glory can shine out through them. The Gospel reading spoke of the yeast that is mixed in with the dough, affecting and changing the whole mass (Mt.13:31-2). So it is with the word that the missionary sows in the hearts of people. It works its way into every fibre of their being, changing every part of them and helping to transform them more and more into the full human beings they are capable of becoming.
Missionaries work to give people hope, to help them understand that the reason for their existence is a loving God who cares for each one with an unspeakably great love, to help them become more deeply aware of their personal worth and their value as human beings.
But that work will not get far unless in one way or another it goes on to help people live a fuller and more human life. And so you will always find missionaries working where people are poor; where they are hungry; where they are in need of health care, housing, water, education; where people are despised and trampled on; and where they are struggling to make life better for themselves.
Going back to the Gospel reading, the work missionaries do is like the skilful mixing of the yeast and the dough. If you’re to have good bread, you must have both. In the same way missionary work always involves two things: on the one hand, faith, prayer, sacraments, the Mass, and accompanying people in their joys and sorrows; and on the other, the human development efforts of clinics, hospitals, schools, promoting food security, building houses, providing water, and working for the enjoyment of human rights. The missionary wants to bring about the full and authentic human development that sees people having enough of life’s necessities, getting rid of social ills and being able to respond to the call to share God’s life.
We praise God that so much of this has been done by missionaries. We thank God that it is still being done by thousands of them across the world. And we pray to God that with the enthusiastic encouragement and generous support of the Irish people it will continue to be done. Because it is God’s work for people whose needs are great, this is a work that can never come to an end.
And let me say this to young people: if you want a fulfilling life where the challenges will make you happy, the trials make you strong, and your faith will give you peace and joy, think of giving some or all of your life to missionary work among people who are hungry for the good news we are able to share with them, open to accepting God’s word through us, and generous in teaching us about themselves and the mysterious workings of God in their lives. After more than fifty years with the people of Zambia I can tell you that I can’t imagine anything that could bring more happiness and a greater sense of fulfilment.
And on Mission Sunday we also praise God for the way so many missionaries have given their whole lives to the service of their people, standing by them even when conditions became rough or dangerous, staying with them into old age and on into the grave. And again from what I have seen in Zambia, I can tell you that the people among whom they live and work are so happy when the missionaries stay with them to the end like this. They give them a tear-filled funeral and an honoured burial to show their heartfelt gratitude that Father Pat, Sister Lucy, Brother Seán, or whoever, never left them. In effect, they are saying to the missionary who dies among them: well done and thank you.
And on Mission Sunday, when we are celebrating what missionaries have accomplished, we too say to all of them, the living and the dead: well done, maith an bhean, maith an fear, you have done well, we are proud of you and we are eternally in your debt.
And in this we are surely echoing what the Lord Himself is saying: well done good and faithful servants; you brought my word out and it has not come back to me empty; thanks to you it has succeeded in what it was meant to do; come now and enjoy your well-deserved rest in my Father’s home where there’s plenty of room for everybody – and thank you, Ireland and the people of Ireland and Misean Cara, for all that you have done and continue to do to help others know more about me and in helping them live a life that is closer to what I always had in mind for them. You have done wonders. Well done. Blessings on you, every one of you, and keep it up.