GAM Caldogno

Msgr. Cesare Nosiglia, Archbishop of Vicenza - October 7, 2006 (Vicenza Cathedral)

"Some doubted"

Were not enough the many appearances of Jesus for 40 days, the signs that he has to convince some disciples who had truly risen.
Despite this weak faith and unbelief, Jesus confirms the missionary mandate at all, no one excluded.

Today our communities are like that of the eleven: there are people doubting or disbelieving. Faith remains a relentless conquest of becoming Christians. The announcement of the kerygma and the following of Christ does not cease to be an objective for the mission of the Church among us as in the world. To talk about this mission today is to understand all the same gift of love, which is the accepted gospel, and faith in Christ is celebrated and witnessed to every creature.

But before the individual, it is critical to look at the missionary community, to our being Church that proclaims Christ living inside the charity as a source of love for everyone. The Church is no charity in the sense that it accepts the love of God revealed and given to mankind through Christ his Son. Jesus is the love of God, because he so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The missionary, therefore, that every baptized person enjoys this love, is sent by the Community in the world to evangelize, to give all the love she has received, Christ the Lord. When we say "Love is the soul of mission" we wish to emphasize that the focus of the mission is given the love of Christ, experienced and witnessed by the Missionary Church and every Christian that it is sent.

This emphasis on community and charity, which is Christ in his heart and life environment where the Church realized, is always kept in mind for not reducing the mission to work generous but lonely, some person without strong links and close with the community that sends it.

Each missionary is as if to lend his voice, his heart, his hands and feet for the community to bring all the love of Christ and the Gospel of charity lived in the Church.

This evening we experience, with the mandate of the bishop, this reality: The community sends missionaries and support them with prayer and the power of love. They go on behalf of the community but remains rooted in it as branches of the vine which is Christ. They remind us that our community is missionary, if he lives the love of Christ, not closing in initiatives and reports limited to one's environment, but being open to all mankind. Of this every believer is personally responsible. The missionaries, who work at the forefront, and we are reminded him to testify in their churches and communities where they carry out their demanding service.

That's why it's important that we always work to ensure that any relationship with the missionaries, even with a single missionary, opens the meeting and the reception of his church where he works, and help our community to develop a connection between the exchange of gifts two churches and communities: the sending and the host. The mission then becomes a vehicle for growth in charity and communion between the Churches which expresses the unity.

Ones show some real consequences, affecting the way we promote and manage the missionary movement.

Often missionaries and community groups to promote a strong commitment to financially support and provide financial resources for social projects in individual countries missionaries or missionaries. This is certainly positive, since the proclamation of the Gospel must be accompanied by concrete human and social development of poor people. However, we must never forget that the missionary is there to proclaim Jesus Christ and bring the gift of faith, which is the act of love than that every man needs. Moreover, the missionaries, in close collaboration with the local church, build communities entrusted to them in order that it be delivered to the local clergy so that they become responsible. Therefore, support for the seminars, the initiatives of evangelization and works for the local church is necessary and essential as that to build a well or a school or a clinic. Grow this missionary awareness in our community is full of those core task and coordinate missionary efforts on diocesan and local level.

The diocese is responsible for coordinating the many activities and initiatives to encourage the missionaries or the poor countries where they work.
But it is also necessary to promote a concrete coordination not to disperse rain and interventions to ensure that projects are converging towards the East or in any areas or realities that need it most.

The Office also has this missionary order and should be seen as an instrument of communion and co-ordination in the Diocese for all those who selflessly in this field.

I know this is already happening, and ask that it is always held in high esteem by leaders of the missionary groups or neighborhood and parish priests and religious involved to support the missions and their missionaries.

The exchange of gifts between the Churches. The mission is not one way. Our community can receive so much from those countries missionaries. Their faith and witness their enthusiasm and joy of being Christian, the gift of ecclesial communion and fellowship are important resources on which to renew the spirit of missionary parishes to their faithful.

We need to learn to become a missionary church here in our country, looking at the sister churches of Africa and Latin America or Asia, and reflecting on the very organization of the missions in which many of our priests, religious and laity working together the local faithful.

The charity also implements donating and accepting one another's gifts and the spiritual and pastoral resources that every Church is rich and experiences.

I hope that our diocese, which has given so much time and is still giving a missionary in this area, also know to capitalize on this rich experience of life from love, in our communities, in the chancel, among the deacons, the various ministers and lay people and the men and women religious, the apostolic and pastoral charity, which gives strength to the missionary proclamation of Christ and in families, in the living environment and working to ensure that our whole church become more missionary and every Christian be committed to donate the faith and the love of Christ to anyone in its path every day.

The Ecclesial Congress of Verona with the theme of the testimony of Christ will spur us on this path that brings us closer to the experience of missions in the world.

We thank the Lord for all this and we look forward with renewed hope in Him who promised: "I am with you always until the end of the world." This is the certainty that should fuel our missionary vocation of the baptized and the community to strengthen the faith, firm hope to make and implement the charity's mission, giving our lives for the Gospel. Holy Mary, Queen of the Rosary that we have mentioned, the food we pray that, through her intercession, we realize all this in our everyday life, showing everyone the joy of being Christian and living together as a community the great adventure the mission that Christ has commanded us and we must all feel involved and responsible.