World Mission Sunday

(Abstract of text from "World Mission Sunday: Homily Notes")

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is World Mission Sunday. The theme suggested for us this year by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is “Go! Proclaim the Gospel!”

What does that mean for us today? Perhaps we can find the beginning of that answer in the last line of today’s gospel: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?” Faith in what? Faith in whom? Let us look closer at today’s readings.

In the first reading from the book of Exodus (17:8-13), God’s chosen people, like many refugees in our world today, are vulnerable as they start on their long migration out of Egypt. They suddenly find themselves surrounded by a fierce enemy, the Amalekites. In the scriptural passages leading up to this latest threat, we witnessed several examples of how faithful God lovingly protected this tiny fractious remnant on its journey; making a path through the Red Sea, providing bread from heaven and so on. Their leader, Moses instinctively turns again to God for help. Trusting in God once more, Moses tells Joshua to form a small army and to prepare to defend the Israelites. In a drama that must have been a sight to behold, the elderly Moses having climbed a hilltop, extended his arms in prayer to God, “from morning… until sunset.” It was a communal effort. When Moses became tired Aaron and Hur sat on a stone and held up his arms. In the midst of fierce action, there was prayer. In the context of prayer, there was action. Prayer and action go together, linking God and his chosen.

In today’s gospel parable about the widow and the judge (Lk 18:1-8), Jesus speaks similarly “about the need to pray continually, and never lose heart”. In Africa, even today, the family of a husband who has died can legally come and claim his house and possessions, putting the husband’s widow and children literally on the street. Perhaps that is what had just happened to the widow to whom Jesus referred. Once more, we witness prayer in the midst of a particular struggle and struggle sustained by prayer.

Perhaps the main message we can take from the theme of Mission Sunday this year and in the context of today’s readings, is that God is on the side of the poor and the vulnerable in our midst, whether it be a nation or an individual, and that we as followers must imitate this example. On the side of the poor and vulnerable is where Christians belong.