RADIO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER

PAUL VI, FOR THE XXXVIII WORLD MISSION DAY

Saturday, October 23, 1965

 

Venerable Brothers and Beloved Sons,

We have wished with all our heart to address you personally the appeal for “World Mission Day”, both to add once again Our fervent contribution to the illustration of the missionary character, essential to the Holy Church of Christ, and presented with great effectiveness in these days by the Ecumenical Council, and to respond to a double voice that We seem to have to gather; one that comes from heaven, the other from the earth.

God’s grave and admonishing voice resounds from heaven – and we are more aware of it every day: « Clama, ne cesses; almost tuba exalta vocem tuam… , Shout and don’t stop; raise your voice like a trumpet” ( Is . 58, l), not to rebuke, as was the mandate to the Prophet Isaiah, but to spread, to proclaim, to make ever more evident the happy, joyful news that the Savior Jesus brought to earth, entrusting it to his Church and in particular to Us, who has placed on the Chair of Truth: “Manifestavit se Dominus”, God has made Himself known! God has shown himself as Father to all men, even if he is still unknown to many of them. He loves them, awaits them, wants them united to Himself in his eternal happiness.

We would like to proclaim this message of love and peace, this trust of salvation in a loud voice, in the desire that to Ours be added that of all Our children, who have already had the grace of knowing the Father who is in Heaven.

However, it seems to Us that we must gather another voice and it disturbs Us, it moves Us in the consideration of Our insufficiency, and it makes Us desire that the whole Church of God unites with Us consciously to give a full, adequate, effective answer: it comes from the earth, anxious and imploring, it comes from the peoples who desire the triumph of fraternal charity, respect for justice, peace, in recognition of the common Father who is God. “Ostende nobis Patrem, Show us the Father” (John 1 4 , 8 ) .

We have heard this loud, powerful, pleading, if not spoken, voice in Our apostolic and missionary journeys to Palestine, India and to the United Nations Organization. We have heard it and We have remembered that only Jesus Christ is the «Prince of Peace». We heard it, and We remembered the plea that some Gentiles made to the Apostle Philip: ” Volumus Iesum videre , We want to see Jesus” ( John 12, 21).

We must therefore quickly give an answer to the plea that rises to God from all over the earth, showing Jesus as the Savior, since He alone is the true light that illuminates every man. And whoever sees Him, sees the Father! It seems that there could not be a happier and more promising moment for a great missionary development of the Church: the expectation of the peoples is extremely anxious; the sadness of the times and the dangers of peace make us think God’s time is near.

A concrete, active, industrious answer to the expectation of the peoples is that of the missionary apostolate properly so called. Our thoughts, our admiration, Our gratitude turn to you, dear Missionaries, priests, religious, nuns and lay people, apostles of the Kingdom of God, who, responding to a sublime call, leaving family, home, country, have become heralds of the fatherhood of God, of the divinity of Christ, of the mystery of salvation in the Holy Spirit which is accomplished in the Church. We wish to point out your example to the whole world, which is the exaltation of your most noble mission, inspired by love, interwoven with sacrifices, nourished with faith to the point of immolation, so that all Christians may join you in prayer and collaboration.

However, the light of the Faith and of revealed Truth would not shine upon the face of the earth, nor would peoples be able to know and accept the fatherhood of God, if the direct and immediate work of the heralds of the Gospel, painfully scarce, limited and insufficient, disproportionate to the needs of the Kingdom of God, were not joined, united in understanding and united in action, by all of Christianity, which is the living and indivisible Body of Christ. Indeed, what could the workers in the vineyard do – the advanced arms of the Kingdom of God – if behind them the Body of the Church lay inert and indifferent?

Our appeal is therefore addressed to all the Christian people and becomes more heartfelt, more pressing, more persuasive, so that all the children of God, who are already in the Father’s house, remember their brothers and sisters who are still outside it, and join Us in prayer and in the works of solidarity and fraternal charity.

In prayer, first of all, because Jesus himself imposes it on us: ” Rogate Dominum messis ut mittat operarios in messem suam , Pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his field” ( Matt . 9, 38) and ” Sine me nihil potestis facere , Without me you can do nothing” ( John 15, 5). The proclamation of the Gospel is the work of Grace and Grace is obtained with humble prayer.

Then in works of charity. It is evident that in the face of the immense dimensions of the missionary problem, as vast as humanity and ever more complicated both due to the growing number of non-Christians, and due to the obstacles of nationalism, religious indifferentism and moral relativism, and due to the scarcity of workers and apostolate means, the duty of an immediate, simultaneous and effective presence of the Church throughout the world becomes more serious and urgent.

But it is also evident that the saving presence of the Church, so that it can be effective and rapid, is conditioned on the unity of cooperation of all her members, that is, of all the faithful, around the one Shepherd whom God has placed at the head of his Church, so that, in a simultaneous vision of all the needs of the Missionary Church, He can promptly bring the necessary help to all parts of the world.

It is well known that the Church usually communicates the light of truth through the fire of love, and works of charity are the easiest ways for the manifestation of God who is love. For this reason, wherever it has extended, the Catholic Church has presented itself with the works of corporal and spiritual charity; schools, kindergartens, hospitals; and even today it kindles love for God by honoring His image, visible in every creature, with works of mercy.

If today therefore the Church, with the cooperation of all the faithful of Christianity, united with the Pope in the support of the Pontifical Mission Societies, could greatly multiply the works of charity of the Missions, the propagation of the Faith in the world would also have an incomparable increase.

Therefore, while we praise and bless every initiative in favor of missionary cooperation, we cannot fail to express a special gratitude to those of Our children who, having understood the importance of the united solidarity of all aid flowing into the hands of the common Father, support Our Missionary Societies in particular, which We Ourselves have already presented and recommended in the Message for “World Mission Day” of 1963.

With their offerings they give the Apostolic See the possibility of fulfilling that permanent office of ” praeses caritatis ” (of her who presides over charity), which Saint Ignatius of Antioch already from the first Christian century pointed to as a distinctive feature of the See of Peter, the foundation and head of all the Churches.

Once again, therefore, we recommend the Pontifical Mission Societies as those which best realize the unity of cooperation of the faithful with the Supreme Pontiff. They are works of the Church and Our venerable Brothers in the Episcopate, co-responsible with Us for the salvation of souls, will want to consider them as their own Works and organize them effectively in their Dioceses, through the Pontifical Missionary Union of the Clergy, which is their soul.

With a heart filled with gratitude for those who will listen to Our appeal, It is our pleasure to pour out the Apostolic Blessing with a particularly affectionate greeting to you, Venerable Brothers, and to the flock entrusted to you, to the most beloved members of the native clergy, to the individual Missionaries, to their Institutes and benefactors, but above all to those who will love and support Our dear Pontifical Mission Societies according to their heart and their possibilities.

PAUL VI

 

Credit: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, publisher of the official documents of the Holy See