“Be it done to me according to your word.”

This wonderful fiat, this powerful ‘yes’ to God from the Blessed Virgin Mary was the theme explored by the young people of the world at World Youth Day in Panama in recent days and it reminds me that each of us has to continually make our own ‘yes’ if mission is to thrive in our world today.

In his final remarks to the young people at Mass in Panama this past Sunday, Pope Francis challenged them not only to make their own ‘yes’ to God, but to go out and share their love with others.

This is the essence of mission. To encounter Christ, to learn of and experience his love for us at a personal level, and then, crucially, to go out and share it.

“I ask you not to let the fervour of these days grow cold,” the Pope told the young people gathered in their thousands before him.

“Go back to your parishes and communities, to your families and your friends, and share this experience, so that others can resonate with the strength and enthusiasm that is yours.  With Mary, keep saying ‘yes’ to the dream that God has sown in you.”

As Christians and as missionaries, we are called to do the same. Having experienced the love of Jesus, and known the difference it makes in our own lives, how can we not share it?

The Divine Word Missionaries have been sharing the love of Christ with the poor and marginalised throughout the world since the late 1800s. This month, we celebrated the feast day of our founder St Arnold Janssen and St Joseph Freinademetz, missionary to China. From St Arnold’s dream of sharing the love of Christ with those who had not encountered him, has grown the world’s largest religious missionary Society.

However, the call to go out and share Christ with others is not just for vowed religious missionaries in far-off lands, but for all Christians, young and old. Having said ‘yes’ to God we are called to share the Good News with our family, our friends, our workmates, those in need in our community, the poor, the forgotten.

As 2019 gets underway, let’s renew our ‘yes’ and, as Pope Francis says, go back to our communities and share our experience of divine love, whether through joyful testimony or acts of loving service. This is mission.