Pope's Message for World Mission Sunday 2011
"As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's message for World Mission Sunday, which will be observed Oct. 23. The message, titled "As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You" (John 20:21), was published today by the Vatican press office.
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"As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You" (John 20:21). On the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000, the Venerable John Paul II, at the beginning of a new millennium of the Christian era, reaffirmed forcefully the need to renew the commitment to take to all the proclamation of the Gospel with "the same enthusiasm of the Christians of the early times" ("Novo Millennio Ineunte," No. 58). It is the most precious service that the Church can give to humanity and to each person who seeks the profound reasons to live his existence fully. Because of this, this same invitation resounds every year in the celebration of World Mission Sunday. In fact, the incessant proclamation of the Gospel also vivifies the Church, her fervor, her apostolic spirit, it renews her pastoral methods so that they are increasingly appropriate to the new situations -- also those that require a new evangelization -- and animated by the missionary drive: "the mission renews the Church, reinforces the faith and Christian identity, gives new enthusiasm and new motivations. The faith is strengthened by giving it! The new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support in the commitment to the universal mission" (John Paul II, "Redemptoris Missio," No. 2).
