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 A true believer cannot live his life without making himself an apostle, giving testimony to his very existence, together with and at the service of He who was the first missionary, He who has served, loved and given His own life for us: Jesus of Nazareth.
The missionary is in the heart and roots of every believer, it is a commitment, a calling, an urgency written within our faith. “Woe to us if we do not evangelize”, remember that our actions speak louder than our words.
The Christian duty is to serve humanity, freely, without interest so as to expand the existence of Jesus so that He is brought to all that endure hardship, poverty, sufferance and injustice.
The believer becomes a true witness in every aspect of his life: his faith is action, gift, total service to all; we are rich only when we give, when we think and when we commit ourselves to the many people who expect something from us.
If we are believers, if we have known Jesus, we must be thankful: it is a fortune, an undeserved privilege to be where we are and to have all that we have. It is not a gift to be kept for ourselves but to share with those in need. All that God gives to us must be given to others!
Think a moment about Africa and the many other impoverished parts of the world: we cannot make our brothers and sisters wait in vain; we are all children of the same Father whose one desire is that no one is left without the bare necessities for living.
All this could be possible if there was no selfishness, no ambitions, and no wrongdoings created many times by our own selves.
How can you believe in a God who has given His whole self to everyone, who has allowed himself to be crucified, and at the same time permits many children in the world to be left without a slice of bread, without a bowl of rice? We can’t tell others to be good and to do good in our “Christianity” when there are so many in the world who cry, who hunger, who suffer because they do not have what is necessary for living. Genuine Christianity exists only when there is respect for life and fraternal love.
If the risen Jesus Christ is living in us, how can we sleep at night knowing that our brothers are carrying crosses that often time we have placed upon them with our acts of selfishness and indifference? We must be believers that commit ourselves to true conversion, that are willing to fight against the selfishness that lives in and suffocates our hearts.
It is not that man hungers only for bread, rice, righteousness, for “things”; there is indeed a more profound hunger that touches every man: that which is the hunger for God, for peace, for forgiveness.
We, who live in that part of the world that has everything, know very well that “everything” does not give us serenity, trust, hope, true joy in our lives. We have “everything” but more often than not we are also overwhelmingly sad.
And so, in the giving of bred to our brothers there is a greater “gift” that God would like for us to discover: the joy of living does not come from material goods but from the encounter that our hearts must live with Him who has created us, desired us, loved us always, and who has put in us the desire to love, serve and share with others.
Greetings and many thanks to all missionaries: for us they are a true example because they know how to step outside of themselves in order to enter into the mystery of another’s pain, to go to those who are waiting for the goodness of us who profess to be Christian.
Mary, Mother and Queen of the Missions, give to each of us the desire and conviction that only in the giving of ourselves to our brothers will we become persons who are liberated and fulfilled. Those who serve mankind: neighbors, family, children, strangers; feel within themselves the true dignity of what it is to be a Child of God, the real royalty of our Baptism. We are “kings”; we are “queens”; to serve means to reign.
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