This is an invitation to all Christians and people of good will as the Pope would put it, to reach out to people in need be it material or spiritual. To concertize this in our pastoral areas, we therefore need to launch a new pastoral awareness which definitely will express some social concern.
What this implies is an inward growth that we may call “growth within” which means deepening of one's faith and “growth outwards” which means evangelization.
As catholics, we need to be trained to spread the word of God and make it part of our lives. In fact catholics who are influential, leading members in the community should be brought together for workshops in order to enable them to be “ salt of the world” and again catholics should be in the forefront in the fight against poverty, exploitation, corruption and other social evils.
As missionaries ( by the fact of our baptism), we need to be delighted by this missionary drive and commit ourselves to it whole heartedly. It is our conviction that this reaching out can only happen once we are deeply convinced of the richness of our faith in Christ having accepted him as “the source of our lives”. But at the sometime, this deepening can only happen if we feel the need to share it others. Sharing our faith with others will make us grow inwardly and strengthen this vital union with Christ who links is with the father.
The agent if this process is the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II is the same encyclical “RM” calls him the Principal Agent of Mission” ( and this is very true), and referring to the Second Vatican document “Gaudium et Spes”, states that “ the Spirit of God with marvelous foresight directs the course of ages and renews the face of the earth”, implying the Holy Spirit is not just the property of the Catholic Church.
The present Pope Benedict XVI, wrote his message for the World Mission Sunday 2009 in the light of the world of God taken from the book of Revelation 21, 24 : “the nations will come to its light”. As goal of the church's mission, he affirms that it is “ to illuminate with the light of the Gospel, all the peoples journeying through victory towards God so that in Him, they may be fully realized and accomplished”. As a result of this, Catholics must live the longing and the passion to illuminate all peoples with the light of Christ. Basing ourselves always on the Holy Scriptures, let us take the perfect example of deacon Philip helping the Ethiopian Eunuch to understand the Scriptures traveling with him in his chariot, helping him to understand that they focus on Christ , the one send by God God to bring salvation and life to all.
It is important to become aware that the Ethiopian was already searching and trying to understand because something was happening in his heart even before he met Philip but he needed Philip to understand fully. Philip himself was guided by the Holy Spirit to take the initiative to join the Ethiopian in his journey of Faith.
The mission of the church ties up nicely this year with the present Synod for Africa , taking place in Rome in this very month of October, which has as its theme “ The Church in Africa in service to reconciliation, justice and peace”, responding to the Lord's challenge “ to be the salt of the earth and light of the world” (Mt5,13-14).
Each one is therefore invited to participate actively in this year's mission campaign,through prayers, financial contribution and living witness.
May our lady Consolata guide our path of conversion, so that Jesus may let his Glory shine in and on us, in all the places of our personal and social welfare. Mary Consolata, filled with mercy and justice through your docility to the Spirit of Consolation, obtain the grace for us to be witnesses of the Risen Lord so that we may increasingly become “the salt of the earth and light of the world”.
