SAMPLE HOMILY FOR WORLD MISSION SUNDAY (October …

1 SAMPLE HOMILY FOR WORLD MISSION SUNDAY ( october 18, 2009 - 29th SUNDAY of ordinary Time - Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45) In East Africa, a family heard about a remote village where the people had not heard about Christ. They left their own village and moved there with a single purpose: to spread and live the Good News of the Lord. An American priest was sent on MISSION to Jamaica in the West Indies. Today he is at the heart of many Church projects among the poor, an instrument of Christ s peace. In India, a local Sister s main goal is to show Jesus to the poor. She and her Community do that through prayer groups, by bringing the Word of God into the lives of elderly and disabled persons, abandoned children. All of them the family, the priest, the Sisters are helping to heal a broken WORLD through the power of Christ, through the gift of faith, and through the sacrifices of their daily lives. What about us? Today s Scripture readings help us to see our role in the missionary work of the Church.

2 In the first reading, Isaiah tells of the suffering servant. We see in Jesus this suffering servant of Isaiah. Through our Gospel passage, we know that Jesus disciples His original disciples and all of us today are to share in His self-sacrifice, to serve others, to give our lives day by day in ransom for others. To be a disciple of Jesus is inevitably difficult, challenging, sacrificial, even painful, as Jesus explains in the Gospel, but it is also a joy and, ultimately, our we celebrate WORLD MISSION today, we are reminded that our call to follow Christ in MISSION extends beyond sharing our faith with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. It extends to all people or, as Jesus said, even to the ends of the earth (see Acts 1:8). Some few of us are called and sent by the Church to serve as missionaries overseas. [If there are missionaries from your diocese, or parish, you could speak of them here.] But most of us say yes to our missionary vocation in the way of prayer, personal sacrifice and financial support.

3 The first way we can be missionary is through our prayers. Everything that we do in the name of the Lord is based on our connection with God, on our prayer. Today, we pray for all who serve in the missionary task and for the people they are inviting to Christ through their words and witness to His love, their teaching and healing, their care of the elderly and orphans. They are there in person; we are with them in means of missionary activity personal sacrifice joins us in a unique way with Christ and with the Missions. We all have burdens, limitations, trials, anxieties. Even as we struggle under the crosses in our lives, we can offer them in union with Christ on the Cross for missionaries and those they serve. Finally, there is financial support; it is essential. Here s how we might understand the importance of today s WORLD MISSION SUNDAY collection. What is provided to the Propagation of the Faith today by us and by Catholics around the WORLD , even in the Missions is as critical to the missionary work of the Church as the weekly collection is to our parish.

4 It s the basic lifeblood of some 1,150 MISSION dioceses. Can Sisters be sent to an isolated village in Ghana to teach and care for the sick? Can a catechist be trained to care for a MISSION in India that never had its own teacher before? Can a priest travel 50 rough miles to a MISSION for SUNDAY Mass? In a very real way, we are the ones who help support these efforts making these answers Yes! Like the family in Africa, it s our MISSION to move ourselves, at least in spirit, to far places to call others to Christ. Like the priest in Jamaica, it s our vocation to make ourselves instruments of Christ s peace, touching even the ends of today s broken WORLD . Like the Sisters in India, it s our calling to show Jesus to the poor the poor of all the WORLD and invite them to live in the faith that brings us here to the Eucharist today. What is provided to the Propagation of the Faith today is as critical to the missionary work of the Church as the weekly collection is to our parish.

5 It s the basic lifeblood of some 1,150 MISSION dioceses.