+e20194emal 18.04.2019 11:39 Seite 1
No 4 • May 2019 Published eight times per year
© Ismael Martínez Sánchez/ACN
www.acnmalta.org “It was the hardest and most beautiful journey of my life. The hardship is already almost forgotten – the burning heat, the murderous roads, our Jeep stuck fast in the water, an improvised sea journey, the rocket fire in Saigon… But the beauty remains – heroic priests, rocklike faith, courageous seminarians, Mother Teresa, grateful missionaries, the young child saved, thanks to your help.” Father Werenfried van Straaten, recalling a missionary journey in 1973
It must surely have seemed like an impossible mission when, after his resurrection, Jesus sent his apostles out into all the world to proclaim the Gospel to all men. For what must then have seemed quite beyond them, given the lack of modern communication, technology and modes of travel, was achieved by the Holy Spirit through his own power. Today we have innumerable technological means of communication available to us. With our technical resources, mass media and air travel, we can reach the remotest corners of the world with the message of Christ in hours or even seconds. However, all this is to no avail if we lack the motivating power of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, our “first mission” is an invisible and entirely spiritual one. It is this: “Remain in me; then you will bear much fruit” (cf Jn 15:5). This “first mission” is something we can only achieve in silence, in the personal encounter with God. Mother Teresa writes in her spiritual testament, “I am concerned, because some of you have not yet truly
Father Pedro, travelling up the Amazon on the “Padre Werenfried”.
encountered Jesus – face to face – just you and Jesus. Have you truly perceived, with the eyes of your soul, with what great love He gazes upon you? Unless you hear Jesus speaking in the stillness of your heart, you cannot hear Him saying to you in the hearts of the poor: ‘I thirst’.”
Dear friends, not everyone has the vocation to travel to foreign lands and proclaim the Gospel publicly. However, the universal mission of the Church is impossible without the underlying mission of prayer and unity, to which we are all called. Hence, the missionary is not alone, for his mission is borne by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The “second mission” also has something of a hidden character, for it takes place
There is no more noble a goal in life than to bring redemption to all nations. Hence, your donations not only “The universal mission of serve a useful purpose but also the Church is impossible help bear fruit for eternity. For without the mission of they carry within them the power of your prayer and your prayer and unity.” love. This is something we owe within our families and communities, one another (cf Romans 13:8). What gift can among our circles of friends, our acquain- be greater than the power to pass on the tances, our school friends or work col- gift of eternal life? Thus, the quintessence leagues, in the places where we live and of love, the goal of all mission is this: “I want work. It consists in the striving for mutual you to never die; I want you to live!” love, reconciliation and unity. Again, this is what Jesus prays to the Father: “May they With my grateful blessing on you all be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…” (cf Jn 17:21). Only this unity can give us the strength and the necessary credibility for our “third mission”: that of proclaiming the Gospel to all Father Martin Maria Barta the world. Ecclesiastical Assistant 1