Mission Sunday

World Mission Sunday 

Good evening/morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. Friends in Christ our Lord, let us thank God almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful church of St. Jean de Brebeauf/St. Paul the Apostle Church. Let us thank God for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever and let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day, 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ calling to mind our sins, short-comings, failures, pain and sufferings asking divine assistance and Christ's  our Lord's forgiveness, mercy and compassion. 

Good evening everyone, our special welcome to all our visitors today. 

After animal blessings, someone asked me...O Father, will dogs go to heaven? Not only dogs, so are the fleas. 

Once a missionary went to a distant land to preach the Good News of Christ our Lord. While he was walking with the guide, he asked about the people, culture, food and so on. And at one point, the missionary priest looked at the guide and said, "What about cannibals? Do you have cannibals in the community?' The guide laughed and laughed and said, "O Father, we do not have any cannibal because the last one we ate him yesterday". 

Today our Holy Catholic Church celebrates 'Mission Sunday'. Today we in a special way, pray for all our missionary priests and people who dedicate their lives to promote justice and peace and who preach the good news of Christ our Lord namely love and forgiveness to all. 

We are by the very nature of the sacrament of Baptism are called to become missionaries at home and missionaries abroad.  

There is a non-canonical story of our Lord Jesus Christ that after His ascension...the angels met with Him and looking at his feet and hands, they said, you suffered a lot to bring love and forgiveness among people and Lord, who is going to preach your mercy, compassion and love now? Jesus said, "My followers because I asked them to go everywhere to preach the good news. What would happen after they die? Do you have any other plan? Jesus said, "My only plan is after my apostles, my disciples, people who were baptized will carry on the message". Yes, we are His plan. We are called to bring the Good News of love and forgiveness to all.  

In the Old Testament time, people did not go out to preach the message of God. They spread the message of God within the community but in the New Testament time and after His glorious Ascension, we are called to go everywhere to preach the Good tidings. 

Once a man came to a spiritual master and offered him two gold coins and said, "Master, I would like to be a missionary and thus go everywhere and preach the good news and what should I do? The master without answering the man picked up one of the gold coins and threw it in the river.  

The man right away jumped in the water looking for the gold coin and upon not finding it asked the master, where did you throw my gold coin?  For that the master took another gold coin and threw it in the water and said, "Right there". Then the master with compassion looked at the man and said, "Son, if you want to be a missionary, you should know how to unbind yourself from material things and hold on to Christ the way. 

Every time Christ our Lord sent His Apostles on mission to preach the Good News, He clearly told them not to take anything with them. As they went, the power of Christ was with them. They preached the message of Christ according to their needs and gospel helped people to look at their culture, custom and traditions differently. 

Once I went to visit a priest friend in Manitouwadge near Thunder Bay and he said that in his mission Church as he was doing a funeral Mass, right after homily...everyone of  them left the church and he didn't know what was going on. They all came in after ten minutes and thus he finished the Mass. Afterwards he asked one of the parishioners why people left right after homily. Do you know what he said? "O Father, this is our tradition. Right after homily, we always go out for ten minutes smoke-break. 

As St. Paul went to different communities to preach the Good News, so many people tried to stop him and so many went against him because they were so afraid to change. They were people who like the Pharisee in today's gospel standing in front of the temple and screaming and proclaiming their righteousness. But Christ's Good News invites us to be like the sinner humbling ourselves before God and others. St.  Paul in order to preach the Good News not 30 thousand kilometers but 30 thousand miles walked. He was given the power and stamina by Christ our Lord. And we all know how St. Jean de Brebeuf did the mission work in Canada. 

Once there was a fight between two African tribes in Niger and a man from one tribe killed his neighbor who belonged to another tribe. When the tribe won, they wanted to take revenge of the killer and they called the  wife who witnessed her husband's death and asked her to point out the killer but she refused saying , "The missionaries who were here taught us how to forgive and accept others like Christ". Once Gandhi said, "Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". 

Even today there are so many priests, nuns and lay people are going to different countries to preach the good news of Christ our Lord. They build schools and hospitals; they build churches and orphanages. They are doing wonderful job in the name of Christ our Lord. And let us remember them all and pray that God may continue to bless them.  

Today we are also called to become missionaries. We are called to preach the Good News to all. Yes, it's our duty to tell them all about God's love and Christ's forgiveness. Let us preach the Good News and as St. Francis of Assisi says, "Let us preach the Good News to all and if it's necessary, let us use words.... yes let our life preach to the them all the unconditional love and unlimited forgiveness of Christ. Amen.