29th Sunday

 

XXIX SUNDAY 2020, MISSION SUNDAY

1. Today being the mission Sunday, our whole focus is on mission. We are called to be once again clear about mission and thus deepen our own sense of mission as well as sustain this task of mission that is proper to each one's life situation.

2. First of all, MISSION is every one's. It is a duty and a right that is due to every believer and follower of Christ irrespectively. Neither anyone can monopolize it nor anyone can evade it. Neither it is a privilege only of a selected few nor it is a look out of only some. This universal binding is very important, so that everyone without exception, feels responsible and supported as well.

3. Since long and even now, MISSION is regarded as the overriding duty of the clergy and the religious. While mission is compulsory upon them, it looks secondary and optional for the other faithful. But it is not so. No one is exempted from it. The ways of carrying out the mission may differ, depending on the different ways of life. Even the degrees of application may also differ, depending on the walks of life.

4.However this variance does not absolve anyone from this bounden duty. It is an obligation and not an option. It is a duty and not a favour. In so far as we are all followers of Christ, the supreme missionary,, in so as we are all members of the church, missionary by her very nature, all of us inherit and share the same task and journey of mission.

5. Accordingly, the mission of a pope or a cardinal or a bishop or a priest or a nun or a lay faithful may be different from other in their specific scope, role, functions and activities. They are not exactly the same but at the same time are not totally different. 

6. What gives all of us commonality in our mission is: all of us share the same deposit of faith, the same baptismal consecration, the same Christian vocation, the very same mission of the Lord, the same grace and power of the Lord and also the same destiny and recompense of eternity.

7. Now broadly speaking, in the light of the holy Word of God, this same mission of Christ is twofold: preach and heal, that is, spreading God' s kingdom in word and deed. This is aimed at liberation of the humanity from the clutches of sin and re-integration of humanity with renewed dignity.

8. The task is enormous. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Therefore both the number and also the quality of the workers must increase. We must pray for it and also work for it. Besides, this is a challenging and hard task. It is to live like lambs among wolves. There will be opposition, criticism, resistance, and persecution.

9. But there is no need to lose heart. It is God's work with us and through us. It is He who is going to sustain and guide. He will empower us with His own light and strength and steer our way. We need not trust  and depend on worldly securities and guarantees. We should not count too much on our own capacities and realities.

10. Therefore our mission will be accomplished well and happily, if we own up the mission of Christ, if we feel responsible, if we do not privatize and monopolize it but share it in fraternal communion as collaborators and companions, if we rely on God' s illumining guidance and empowerment and thus commit ourselves with loyalty and zeal for God's reign of love and justice.