mission sunday

This Sunday is world Mission Sunday. Whenever this Sunday comes we think of those little brown envelopes distributed to us during the mass and those little boys and girls from catholic schools going around with their mission boxes asking for your contribution. Well, that can be one of the activities for Mission Sunday. Our monetary contribution after all is needed for the missionary activities of the Church worldwide. Every year we send the amount you contributed to the Pontifical Missions in Rome to fund these activities whether in faraway Africa, in a lonely outpost among the Pacific Islands or even in the hinterlands of Mindanao. These monies are spent for these activities so that Christ’s expressed command to bring the gospel to the whole world may be fulfilled.


But Mission Sunday is not just about making monetary contributions for the mission. There are more important elements of mission and it involves no financial consideration but one’s time and effort.
Mission can be ad extra which means activities geared towards the proclamation of the gospel to people who have not yet known about Jesus Christ and the salvation he brought to the world. In the case of the Philippines which is a predominantly a Christian nation this can mean mission to countries where the message of Jesus has not been heard yet.
But mission can be ad intra meaning activities geared towards the re-evangelization of our families and neighbors, activities which do not require visas and other language skills, activities among catholics who may have been reneged in their Christian obligation. It can be a missionary activity geared towards the deepening of Christian life or a re-appreciation of our Christian call in baptism.
In the barangay assemblies which we are holding, one of the activities we do is to re-read the vision-mission statement of our Parish made in 1991, to understand what it says and to embrace it once more as our very own vision. As an activity the participants would select a portion of the vision and dramatize this according to their own understanding as a group. For example part of the vision of the parish states that we should become a church “that proclaims God’s word” and a church that is truly “missionary.” How can our parish be truly missionary? How can our parish proclaim God’s word? Some group would act this out by portraying a person inviting standbys, husbands and wives with problematic relationships and those steeped in vices to attend the mass or to join a particular group. That in their understanding is mission. And that is true. When we invite people to hear God’s word, when we invite people to receive the sacraments, and when we invite our neighbors to live according to God’s word we are in effect missionaries, proclaiming God’s word and helping others live it out.
In our parish nowadays people are becoming more and more aware of this obligation permitting themselves to become God’s instruments of salvation for others. When the Legionaries of Mary facilitate the reception of the sacrament of marriage for couples living together without the benefit and grace of this sacrament, when they visit the sick and call the priest to administer the Sacrament of the Sick, these legionaries become missionaries. When the Family for Christ recruit couples in their barangays and help them rediscover the gift of married love, they become in effect missionaries of our parish. When volunteer catechists gather the children each weekend and give them catechesis, helping them learn more about Christ, they become missionaries themselves. When members of the Urna support each other in the faith and reach out to their neighbors, they are doing mission for Jesus. When the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Ladies of Charity gather each Wednesday the old and the sick of our parish to pray the rosary and provide them hot soup afterward, they become missionaries of the Lord. When a mother and father encourage their children to go to mass or line up for confession, they become missionaries for Jesus.
Mission Sunday is not just about making contributions for missionaries in faraway lands. Mission Sunday is also a reminder that we are missionaries - all of us without exemption. We were sent by Jesus’ expressed command to bring the Good News to all peoples and that includes most especially our families, our neighbors, our fellow parishioners.
May we never forget this essential part of our faith in Jesus, that we are called and we are sent by him to bring the message of the gospel to the whole world.