We are Urged to Follow the Missionary CallRead Time 9 min

Sunday, Oct. 20, will be the celebration of World Mission Day. This observation is held globally throughout the Catholic Church on the next-to-last Sunday of every October. It is an opportunity for the Church to renew its commitment to evangelization and to support its many missionary efforts. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, emphasized the importance of the event, stating, “We have to reawaken this dimension of the Church as a universal mission, and to support Pope Francis in these efforts, as the Pope is the ‘first missionary.’”

A vital element of World Mission Day is to acknowledge, express appreciation and offer prayers for the ministers — ordained, religious and lay — who have dedicated their lives to serving in the vocation of a missionary. Their call is central to the work of the Church, as they literally fulfill the commission of Jesus, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Pope Francis has expressed his gratitude for this: “I take this opportunity to thank all those missionaries who, in response to Christ’s call, have left everything behind to go far from their homeland and bring the Good News to places where people have not received it, or received it only recently. We continue to pray and we thank God for the new and numerous missionary vocations for the task of the evangelization of the ends of the earth.”

Yet another important element of World Mission Day is its encouragement and invitation for each and every member of the Catholic Church to embrace a missionary spirit. Actually, the inspiration for this day can be traced back to the grassroots efforts of lay persons who had a special place in their hearts for promoting the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. One such effort was begun by Blessed Pauline Jaricot, a laywoman in France who lived in the 19th century. She asked her friends to pray daily for the missions and to make a donation of a penny a week on behalf of the cause. Interestingly, the initial collection of these funds was sent to the then-missionary territory in the United States of America (i.e., Bardstown, Kentucky, and the Diocese of Louisiana). Eventually, the seeds of these mission societies blossomed into the decision of Pope Pius XI to institute the celebration of World Mission Sunday in 1926. He envisioned a day of universal solidarity involving prayer and giving.

The tradition of a worldwide collection in support of the missions continues in our own day. Some dioceses take up a “second collection” on World Mission Sunday while others — like the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — solicit funds for a variety of global entities via the mailing of a Combined Collection during the fall season. The donations which are given to World Mission Sunday are distributed to the missions via a network known as The Pontifical Mission Societies , which includes the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of Saint Peter the Apostle, the Missionary Childhood Association and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. These societies work through local bishops, churches and missionary congregations (religious orders) to ensure that the financial resources are distributed equitably and justly, based on the needs of the missionary territories. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Pro-Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, has spoken profoundly on the immensity of the needs of many of the 1,150 territories. “I get calls from bishops from Asia and Africa, and often, during the first three minutes, I hear no words, just sobbing. They are the ones who rely on World Mission Sunday.”

In recognition of World Mission Day 2024, Pope Francis has promulgated a message with the theme “Go and Invite Everyone to the Banquet,” which is taken from the Gospel Parable of the Wedding Banquet. (Matthew 22:1-14) He notes, “After the guests refused his invitation, the king, the main character in the story, tells his servants: ‘God therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you can find.’” The Holy Father points out that this story illustrates the passionate desire for missionary outreach which Jesus hoped to instill in his disciples. “Mission, we see, is a tireless going out to all men and women, in order to invite them to encounter God and enter into communion with him. Tireless God, great in love and rich in mercy, constantly sets out to encounter all men and women, and to call them to the happiness of his kingdom.”

In this message, Pope Francis is strong in his exhortation that the role of a missionary is a responsibility of all believers. “Let us not forget that every Christian is called to take part in this universal mission by offering his or her own witness to the Gospel in every context, so that the whole Church can continually go forth with her Lord and Master to the ‘crossroads’ of today’s world.”

And so, as we prepare to commemorate World Mission Day this year, let us draw from the very celebration of the Mass this Sunday the grace to answer the call to mission. For, as the late Pope Benedict XVI, once wrote, “We cannot keep to ourselves the love we celebrate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. By its very nature, it asks to be communicated to everyone. What the world needs is the love of God, to encounter Christ and believe in him. For this reason, the Eucharist is not only the source and summit of the life of the Church; it is also the source and summit of her mission: an authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church.” (Sacramentum Caritatis)