Mission Month has been a wonderful celebration this year, as our parishes and communities throughout the Province joined with the Universal Church in refocusing on what (or who) Mission is and how we can strive to live it more fully.
Of course, Mission is God, the fount of all love, and as missionaries, both lay and religious, we are all spreaders and sharers of God’s love.
Our Province kicked the month of October off with the wonderful International Mission Symposium in Melbourne, celebrating 50 years since the publication of the Vatican II document on Mission, Ad Gentes. You will read more about the Symposium further on in the Enews.
Our parishes and communities held various colourful and community-filled multicultural celebrations throughout the month and had guest speakers on Mission, and it was a time also for our confreres to enjoy some ongoing formation with visiting mission scholars.
In his message for World Mission Sunday, Pope Francis sums up eloquently the heart of Mission, when he says: “Mission is a passion for Jesus and at the same time, a passion for his people”.
How true that is. And the two can never be removed from one another. They are inseparable. We cannot love Jesus without loving his people, and especially those people on the margins, who are so often unloved and forgotten in our world.
I love that the Holy Father used the word “passion” as well. For this is what drives us on in Mission. We must have the fire of love in our heart. There is nothing lukewarm about Mission.
The other great happening in the Church this month has been the Synod on the Family in Rome. As expected it raised some division among the bishops, priests and laypeople taking part, but it also brought to the fore important issues that go to the very heart of living and loving in the world today.
Importantly from a Missionary outlook, the Synod raised the reality of different cultural contexts and the impact culture has on family life and practice.
No doubt the conversation begun at the Synod has much further to go yet, but it is somehow fitting that this important gathering took place during Mission Month. After all, surely the first place that we receive and give love is in the family. It is a mission field full of joy and sometimes very great and painful challenges.
May God bless you and your family and the love you share.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Henry Adler SVD,
Provincial
