WORD FOR MISSION
Missionary reflection  on Sunday Liturgy

MISSION is: to live and

proclaim MERCY

Sunday X  in Ordinary Time

Year “A” - Sunday 05.06.2005

Hosea  6:3-6                      Psalm 49 Romans  4:18-25 Matthew  9:9-13

Reflections

The Readings present, each with its own emphasis, the theme of vocation. Living one's life as a response to God's call is the true secret of personal happiness and of mission - even though this does not mean exemption from tribulations, but rather the ability to overcome them, with the power of the One who calls. The prophet Hosea (First Reading) urges us to hurry to get to know the Lord; but  not just through any ritual or cult knowledge of God: it is a matter of discovering that for Him, love and mercy are worth more than rituals and holocausts (v.6). Abraham (2nd. Reading)  obeyed God's call: he left his own land, welcomed the promise of the Covenant, was ready, out of obedience, to sacrifice the son of the promise. He “hoped against hope”, and through doing so he did become he father of many nations (v.18). The missionary becomes the father/mother of new peoples by trusting totally in God, as Abraham did. It is by letting oneself be led along surprising paths by the God of Life.

Matthew too (Gospel) trusted completely in Jesus when he called: «'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.» This little autobiographical verse says everything. It was a surprise for Levi-Matthew as he sat at the customs house: he experienced the mercy of Jesus and became his apostle and missionary. His only thought at present is the festival dinner with his many colleagues, all "tax collectors and sinners" (v.10) among whom this new Rabbi is quite at ease; indeed, passing over any legal impurity, he sits at table with them without hesitation. The Pharisees, the presumed "just" people (righteous folk), criticise his actions, and are unable to understand the interpretation Given by Jesus with three explanations:  the first a common saying regarding the need the sick have for a doctor (v.12); the second refers to the text of Hosea (1st Reading) in which God proclaims His preference for mercy over ritual practices; the third shows the awareness Jesus had of his mission: He has come to be with sinners and to save them (v.13). He not only chooses people who are humble, poor and of little regard, but even those taken to be negative quantities! Indeed, “the mercy of God goes much deeper than human misery” (Gustave Thibon).

In the Pierced Heart of the Good Shepherd, who gave His life on the Cross for the salvation of all, the Church contemplates the full manifestation of the mercy of God, and proclaims it to the nations. This mystery is 're-presented'  – really and truly – in the Eucharistic sacrifice, as the basic message for Mission. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart * that we have just celebrated, brings us back to contemplation and to Mission. “Especially in the Mass we come into contact with the merciful Heart of Jesus, with that flow of mercy that comes to us from Him and makes us able to be merciful in turn.... We go to Mass not only to receive God's mercy for ourselves, but so as to be able to spread it to others, to be able to go out to people who are in need, despised, excluded” (A. Vanhoye).

The missionary faces the world with the certainty and the unlimited trust that for God there are no people who cannot be brought back, nor situations that are lost or totally desperate: with any person and in any situation God is able to work His salvation. God's mercy is not held up by any barrier; it reaches and saves any person, in whatever situation he or she may be caught up. In order to feel this confidence, the missionary -- and every Christian -- goes to sit in God's school: learns from Him what mercy means, experiences in their own life the depth and sweetness of His love, and becomes His witness, uses mercy and always reasons in terms of acceptance and understanding towards anyone else; announces everywhere that God's mercy is for everyone. It is only thus that the missionary is the messenger of a Church that has, in mercy, its best introduction card and its unique message, the sole good news that interests all peoples.

The Pope's Words

*   “The Church seems in a particular way to profess the mercy of God and to venerate it when she directs herself to the Heart of Christ. In fact, it is precisely this drawing close to Christ in the mystery of His Heart which enables us to dwell on this point... of the revelation of the merciful love of the Father, a revelation which constituted the central content of the messianic mission of the Son of Man. The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy  - the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer -  and when she brings people close to the sources of the Saviour's mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser”.

John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia (1980) 13.

In the footsteps of Missionaries

- 5/6: St. Boniface, Bishop and martyr (675-754), a monk from Britain, great evangeliser of Germany, Bishop of Magonza, buried at Fulda.

- 6/6: St. Norbert (1080-1134), Bishop of  Magdeburg, Founder of the Premonstratensians and missionary in France and Germany.

- 6/6: St Marcel Champagnat (1789-1840), Founder of the Little Brothers of  Mary (Marist Brothers) for the education and formation of youth.

- 8/6: Bl. Jacques Berthieu, (1838-1896), a French Jesuit priest, missionary in Madagascar for over 20 years. He was martyred at Ambiatibé.

- 8/6: Bl. Mary Theresa Chiramel Mankidiyan (1876-1926), a Carmelite nun from Kerala (India). Foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family, dedicated to youth and those in need.

- 9/6: Bl. Joseph of Anchieta (1534-1597), a Jesuit priest born in the Canaries. A great missionary in Brazil, he founded the city of  Sâo Paulo.

- 11/6: St. Barnabas, Apostle. One of the first converts in Jerusalem, he was a missionary in Antioch and great friend and collaborator of St. Paul. He evangelised Cyprus.

- 11/6: Bl. Ignatius Maloyan (1869-1915), Bishop of Mardine of the Armenians and martyr. He was tortured and killed by the Turks in the beginning of the Armenian holocaust.

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Editor: Fr. Romeo  Ballan, mcci – Director of CIAM, Rome – Website:   www.ciam.org   “Parola per la Missione”