MESSAGE OF JOHN PAUL II
FOR WORLD MISSION DAY, 1988

1. Dear brothers and sisters.

In addressing my message for the next World Mission Day, as the Marian year which I proclaimed in preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 is drawing to a close, I would like to invite all the members of the People of God to reflect on a particular aspect of evangelization: the presence of Mary in the universal mission of the Church.

This mission consists in the proclamation of the good news of salvation, which is obtained through faith in Christ, according to the mandate that the risen Lord himself gave to the apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19); “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).

I. Mary Star of Evangelization and Mother of all Peoples

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was the first to believe in her Son and was proclaimed blessed for her faith (cf. Lk 1:45). Her life was a journey and a pilgrimage of faith in Christ, in which she preceded the disciples and always precedes the Church (cf. “Redemptoris Mater”, 6.26).

Therefore, wherever the Church carries out missionary activity among peoples, Mary is present: present as Mother who cooperates in the regeneration and formation of the faithful (cf. “Lumen Gentium”, 63); present as “Star of evangelization”, as my predecessor Paul VI affirmed (cf. Pauli VI “Evangelii Nuntiandi”, 82), to guide and comfort the heralds of the Gospel and support in the faith the new Christian communities, born from the missionary proclamation with the power of the Word and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The presence and influence of the Mother of Jesus have always accompanied the missionary activity of the Church. The heralds of the Gospel, in presenting the mystery of Christ and the truths of the faith to non-Christian peoples, also illustrated the person and function of Mary, who, “through her intimate participation in the history of salvation, brings together, so to speak and reverberates the greatest data of faith», and «as she is preached and honored, she calls believers to her Son, to her sacrifice and to the love of the Father» («Lumen Gentium», 65). And every people, welcoming Mary as a mother, enriches her cult and devotion with new titles and expressions, responding to their own needs and religious soul. Many of these Christian communities, the fruit of the evangelizing work of the Church,

II. Mary, Model of Consecration to the Mission

The Church, in her evangelizing vocation and solicitude, takes the example and stimulus from Mary, the first to be evangelized (see Lk 1:26-38) and the first evangelizer (see Lk 1:39-56). It is she who accepted the good news of salvation with faith, transforming it into announcement, song, prophecy. It is she who gave all men the best spiritual directive they have ever received: “Do whatever (Jesus) tells you” (Jn 2:5). At Mary’s school, the Church learns to consecrate herself to the mission.

The awareness that over two-thirds of humanity ignores or does not yet share faith in Christ the Redeemer urges the Church to always prepare new generations of apostles, to make prayer and commitment more intense, so that in every Christian community there arise more numerous missionary vocations.

Indeed, if it is true that, according to the Council, all of Christ’s disciples are entrusted with the spread of the faith according to their own possibilities, those whom the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, calls through the missionary vocation are especially committed to this, by raising up within the Church institutions which assume, as a specific duty, the task of the first proclamation of the Gospel (cf. “Ad Gentes”, 23).

It is a reason for comfort, hope and thanksgiving to the Lord that the missionary services of the particular Churches are multiplying with the sending of diocesan priests, the much deserving “Fidei donum”, lay people and volunteers, both to help Sister Churches most in need, both to bring the first proclamation of the Gospel and the solidarity of charity among peoples and non-Christian human groups.

With particular joy it should be noted that, alongside the Churches of ancient foundation, the Churches of Africa, Asia and Latin America are increasingly participating in the universal mission. The sending of missionaries “ad gentes” by these ecclesial communities, still under development, demonstrates that authentic Catholic and missionary spirit with which the new Churches must be animated, “by also sending missionaries to preach everywhere the Gospel, even if they suffer from a lack of clergy” (cf. “Ad Gentes”, 20).

The heralds of the Gospel, often ignored, forgotten or persecuted, who spend their lives at the outposts of the Church’s mission, find a perfect model of dedication and fidelity in Mary, who “consecrated herself totally as the Lord’s handmaid to the person and work of the Son” (Lumen Gentium, 56). Therefore, on the occasion of World Day, it is my pleasure to pay homage to the generous and sometimes even in our day, heroic to the point of martyrdom, commitment of men and women missionaries spread across all continents, addressing them and all the religious families and male and female seculars dedicated to the mission as a fundamental component of their consecration, an affectionate greeting and heartfelt encouragement on behalf of the whole Church, urging them not to be discouraged by the difficulties of their apostolate,

To all of you, men and women missionaries, who work to extend the motherhood of the Church with the birth and formation of new Christian communities, I heartily repeat the exhortation made to priests in my letter on the occasion of Holy Thursday of this Marian year: “It is therefore necessary that each of us “take Mary into his own home”, just as the apostle John took her on Golgotha,… as mother and mediatrix of that “great mystery” (cf. Eph 5:32), whom we all want to serve with our lives” (“Epistula ad Presbyteros”, 4, die 25 Mar. 1988: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XI, 1, [1988] 727).

III. How to Prepare a New Missionary Advent with Mary

In preparing to celebrate the Jubilee of the year 2000 and to begin the third millennium of the Christian faith with the hope and commitment of a new advent, the Church intends to renew and increase her missionary impetus, so that the proclamation of the Gospel is brought more effectively to those peoples who have not yet received or accepted it. To Mary, who prepared the first coming of the Lord, I entrust this hope: with her maternal mediation she may obtain for all the People of God an ever more lively and active awareness of their own responsibility for the advent of the Kingdom of God through evangelization missionary.

I address, first of all, the pastors of the particular Churches, their priest collaborators and all who are engaged in pastoral activity: by word, catechesis and example educate the faithful entrusted to you in a truly missionary spirit, “to that sense of responsibility which binds them, as members of Christ, before all men” (“Ad Gentes”, 21). Christian communities, under your guidance, express the maturity and vitality of their faith and ecclesial communion, opening themselves to the universal mission of the Church with prayer, the promotion of missionary vocations, solidarity, and sharing of both spiritual and material goods with the most poor in the world.

Speaking of the missionary animation of Christian communities, it is necessary to recall the Pontifical Mission Societies, which distinguish themselves in the Church for their initiative and perseverance in arousing missionary cooperation with multiple and appropriate initiatives of animation, information, and formation in a truly universal and missionary. Since they take care of the vast field of charity and material aid, I invite everyone to donate generously for the maintenance of seminarians, for the formation of the laity, especially catechists, for the construction of churches, schools, hospitals and social works.

But the primary role of these works is missionary animation, starting with the first, the propagation of the faith, which has as its main task education, information and missionary awareness.

All, then, have a heart to promote vocations for the missionary Church. This task, of fundamental importance for the effectiveness of the mission “ad gentes”, is entrusted in particular to the Pontifical Society of Saint Peter the Apostle for priestly and religious vocations in the young Churches, and to the Pontifical Missionary Union of priests, men and women religious, who is committed to forming in the missionary spirit those who in the Church carry out the office of pastors, animators, and pastoral workers. The Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, for its part, provides for the education and missionary animation of children, right from their earliest years.

Taking up the inspiring idea of this message, I cannot fail to underline once again that those who promote and live missionary and vocational promotion in the Church find in Mary a mother and a model who inspires and supports their commitment. In fact, as I already underlined at the beginning, she can rightly be called “the first missionary”, because she was the mother of Jesus, the one sent by the Father, the first and greatest evangelizer, and in his mission she united and she collaborated with maternal affection. At this mother’s school all the sons and daughters of the Church learn the missionary spirit by which their Christian life and their apostolic zeal must be animated.

I cannot conclude my message without opening my heart especially to you, young people, who are the sign of the Church’s vitality and great hope. The future of the mission and of missionary vocations is linked to your generosity in responding to God’s call, to his invitation to consecrate his life to the proclamation of the Gospel. From Mary you too learn to say the “yes” of full, joyful and faithful adherence to the Father’s will and to his plan of love.

May the Blessed Virgin, whom we invoke as mother of the Church and of all peoples, intercede with her Son so that a new spirit of Pentecost may animate all those who have received the priceless gift of faith through Baptism. May she make them ever more aware of their missionary responsibility, so that, also through their perseverance and generosity, the Gospel may be proclaimed to all peoples and faith in Christ may bring light and salvation to the whole world.

I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to all, as I wish you abundant heavenly favours.

From the Vatican, May 22, the solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1988, the tenth of my Pontificate.

JOHN PAUL II

 

 

Credit: Dicastery for Communication, to the Holy See