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WORD FOR MISSION Every week EUNTES.NET
offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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Three gifts of the Risen Lord: the Spirit, Pardon and Mission  II
Sunday of Eastertide
(“Low Sunday”) Acts
2:42-47
With Jesus present, the closed doors and the fear are swept away. He, the Living One, proclaims Peace three times (vv. 19, 21, 26) producing intense joy in the disciples at the sight of the Lord (v.20). Peace and Joy are among the most evident characteristics of the early Christian community (1st Reading): they ate together in happiness and simplicity of heart, and were looked up to by everyone (v.46-7). The favour was justified: the solidarity and missionary outreach of that first community was based on four solid supports (v.42): the Apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, prayer and koinonia (fraternal unity, sharing of goods). For his part, Peter (2nd Reading) exhorts the faithful to be full of joy, even though they would be plagued with trials for a short time (v.6) The Pasch of Jesus makes everyone overcome fear, whether believer or missionary. Faith, which brings us to meet the risen Christ, also helps us to overcome many psychological problems, such as anxiety, fear, depression...
Christ offers the community of believers three outstanding gifts: the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins and mission. The greatest fruit of Easter is certainly the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathes over his disciples: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v.22). This is the Spirit of renewed and redeemed creation poured out by Jesus in the moment of his death on the Cross (Jn.19:30), as a prelude to Pentecost (Acts, ch.2 ff).
For John the gift of the Spirit is essentially linked to the gift of peace and, hence, to the forgiveness of sins. As Jesus said: “For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven” (v.23) True peace has its roots in the purification of hearts, in reconciliation with God, with one’s brethren, with the whole of creation. This reconciliation is the work of the Spirit, because He is the remission of all sins (cf. The Prayer over the Gifts in the Mass of the eve of Pentecost, and the new formula of Absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation). For the Evangelist Luke “conversion and the forgiveness of sins” are the message that the disciples must proclaim to all nations (Lk.24:47). The Sacrament of Reconciliation is, therefore, a priceless Easter gift of Jesus: it is the Sacrament of Christian joy (Bernhard Häring).
The gifts of the Risen One are to be proclaimed and shared out among the whole human family. Hence Jesus, on the very same evening, proclaims a universal mission, which he entrusts to the Apostles and their successors: “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you (v.21). They are words which bind forever the mission of the Church with the life of the Trinity, because the Son is the Missionary sent by the Father to save the world, through love. “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” are words to be read alongside these others: “As the Father has loved me, so also I love you (cf. Jn.15:9), thus forging an unbreakable link between mission and love, love and mission. These words make it quite obvious that the universal Mission is born from the Trinity (AG 1-6) and is the Paschal gift and commitment of the Risen Jesus.
The three gifts of the Risen One: Spirit, reconciliation and mission, are lived by us in Faith. Even without seeing the Lord, we are blessed (v.29) if we believe in Him and love Him. So we are grateful to Thomas (v.25) who wanted to put his hand into the wound in Christ’s Heart, which St. Ambrose calls the secret room of the Church (“cubiculum est Ecclesiae”). That Heart is the sanctuary of the Divine Mercy, which is the treasure of this Sunday, celebrated with increasing devotion by increasing numbers of people. (*) The divine Mercy has always been the most widespread and comforting revelation of the Christian mystery: “The earth is full of human misery, but full to overflowing with God’s mercy” (St. Augustine). This is the permanent ‘good news’ that Mission takes to the whole of humanity.
The
Pope’s words Benedict XVI Angelus on 23.04.2006 and 15.04.2007
In
the footsteps of Missionaries - 30/3: St. Leonardo Murialdo (1828-1900), a priest of Turin and educator. He founded the “Josephites” for the succour and education of abandoned children. - 31/3/1767: Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, Portugal and their colonies in Latin America. Six years later (1773) the Society of Jesus was suppressed. - 1/4: Bl. Lodovico Pavoni (1784-1848), a priest from Brescia and a pioneer in the social field. He was dedicated to the human, Christian and professional education of young people. - 2/4: St. Francis de Paul (1416-1507), a hermit and founder of the Friars Minims. - 2/4: Bl. Diego Luigi de San Vitores (1627-1672), a Spanish Jesuit, and Bl. Peter Calungsod (1654-1672), a lay catechist, born in the Philippines: they were both killed out of hatred of the Christian faith on the island of Guam (Marianas, Oceania) and thrown into the sea. - 4/4: St. Isidore (ca. 570-636), Bishop of Seville and Doctor of the Church, skilled in sciences and organisation, and recognised as the last of the Fathers of the Latin Church. - 4/4: St Benedict Massarari, called ‘Niger’, descendant of African slaves (Sicily, 1526-1589), a Franciscan and the first black African to be canonised (1743). He is one of the patrons of Palermo. - 4/4: Martin Luther King (b. Atlanta, USA, 1929): a leader for civil rights, racial integration and non-violence, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1964), assassinated in Memphis (+ 1968). - 5/4: St. Vincet Ferrer (1350-1419), a Spanish Dominican priest, one of the great preachers and an itinerant missionary in western Europe.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Translated by Fr. J.M. Troy, mccj Website:
www.euntes.net “The Word
for Mission”
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