Since 1926, the third Sunday of October, yesterday, has been
set aside for the Catholic Church around the world to renew its commitment to
missionary work. So yesterday, was World
Mission Sunday. And for many decades many men and women from this country would
answer the call to bring the Gospel to Africa, to Asia, to the Middle East, to
Oceania. Now, many priests and religious
from those countries, come here, yes, to care for immigrants from their native
land, but also to do some of the hard work of evangelization that American
Catholics are sometimes unwilling to do.
It takes great courage, great conviction for the Gospel to
leave ones native land, and a great openness and trust in the Lord. Such conviction and trust, perhaps we need to
better cultivate, especially among our young people. Missionary work and evangelization are more
important than CYO sports, or business school.
We celebrate today saints who left the comfort of their
native land to bring the Gospel to North America. Saint Isaac Jogues, Saint John de Brebeuf,
and their Jesuit companions came from France, in the mid 1600s, to what was
considered, New France, to the Northern U.S. and southern Canada, primarily
Quebec. These men were considered
martyrs even for setting out on their missionary journey, for their mission was
full of peril, hardship, the likelihood of death.
Imagine the courage it takes, the conviction for the Gospel,
to leave your home, knowing that you would likely die for the message you
carried. Conviction for the Gospel must
have burned in their breasts. They were impelled by love of Jesus Christ and
for the desire for the salvation of souls.
Listen to these words from the spiritual diary of St. John de
Brebeuf, to get a sense of this man’s conviction: “Jesus, my Lord and savior,
what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on
me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name…I
bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither
permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood
for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for
your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so
that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with
the fullest delight and joy of spirit.”
Imagine the sort of prayer life that brings a man such
tremendous freedom, to give his life away for Jesus. May each of us be filled with similar
conviction for the Gospel, in bringing Christ to souls and souls to Christ, for
the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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