The Paradox of Our Mission

The Paradox of Our Mission

The Church at her very core is missionary. Following Jesus’ call “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19), thus the Church endeavours on preaching the Good News to all nations.

Each Baptized person receives the same mandate of our Lord to be missionaries. In the Baptism rite, every child is marked with the Ephphetha rite, which goes like this: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father” (Rite of Baptism for Children – 1989).

When asked about missionaries, the common understanding of this is a person who goes and preaches the Gospel to places far away from home. But it is not always the case. The patroness of missions is St. Therese of Lisieux, a French woman who never left her convent. She died at the early age of 24, and during her 9 years of a cloistered nun, she never set foot outside of her convent. Her zeal, constant sacrifices and prayers for missions won her the title of patroness of Missions.

Each of us can be missionaries despite the limitations of our busy lives. There is no need to travel too far to be a missionary. We have to continually ask our Lord, as Bartimaeus did in our Sunday Gospel: “Let me see again” (Mk 10:51), to see where we can exercise our call as missionaries, so to be faithful to Jesus’ mandate, to make disciples of all nations.