Homily For The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (World Mission Sunday)

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(WORLD MISSION SUNDAY)

Zachariah 8:20-23; Psalm 117:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Mark 16:15-20.

“BE PART OF THE MISSION”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.

·      Today, the church sets aside this Sunday to celebrate World Mission Sunday. On this Sunday, the church recognizes that she is bound to go into extinction without her missionary mandate. However much the church may have flourished in some parts of the world, she cannot neglect her universal call to mission.

·      Today we also pray for and support missionaries all over the world and for mission territories. The church in Nigeria is a huge beneficiary of the missionary activities of many missionaries in the past. Now that the Lord has blessed her with many missionaries, she has also become a missionary to people elsewhere.

·      Every Christian and more so Catholic is a missionary. At baptism we all receive our missionary mandate to go therefore make the disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

·      Today’s call to mission comes with the theme, “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (Matthew 22:9). From the above, God's call to us is not discriminatory. God has invited us through the activities of various missionaries to the eternal banquet of heaven. We cannot get to heaven if we do not first hear God's word and then apply it to our lives.

·      In the first reading (Zachariah 8:20-23), the prophecy of Zachariah is that regardless of our color and race, we shall all gather from the different corners of the earth to entreat the Lord and he will answer. In the mission of God, everyone is welcome if we are willing to do what the Lord expects of us.

·      From the second reading (1 Timothy 2:1-8), St. Paul reminds Timothy that the utmost desire of God is that all men be saved. Hence, as missionaries, we must do all within our power to bring more people into the banquet of God since there is only God and one baptism.

·      The Gospel reading (Mark 16:15-20) comes with a great instruction to our fathers in the faith – the apostles from whom we draw strength to evangelize. Jesus commanded to into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole of creation. Remarkably, Jesus chose the phrase “whole of creation” because he does not discriminate.

·      Preaching to the world of creation is at the heart of Pope Francis’ message for this year’s world mission Sunday that we should go and invite both those who have heard the message and those who are yet to listen to the message to the banquet of God.

·      God earnestly desires that his banquet be full. The banquet is a metaphor for life in heaven. The question then is, how can the people be saved if they have not heard the message? That is where we come in to celebrate the World Mission Sunday. There is a reminder that we are all missionaries. We must then take the message of the gospel to those who are yet to receive it.

·      For that message of the gospel to be preached and received, we must become a living gospel for others to follow. It cannot be a case of ‘do what I say’ and not ‘what I do’. The words of our mouths and our actions must reflect those who have become both evangelized and converted.

·      Dearly beloved, notice that although the king in Matthew 22:9 had instructed that they should go and invite all to the banquet, the same king came back to chase those who were without the wedding garment. But at least it was not immediately. 

·      The lesson for us from the above is that the God who has called us to mission is equally patient with us. He has called us to become evangelizers after we have become evangelized. To be evangelized means to put on the wedding garment and be ready to answer whenever the master calls.

·      The mandate become on this great Sunday is to always pray for the missions, support the missions and if possible, go to the missions. And that is why the psalmist reminds us that, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Ps. 117).

·      Happy Mission Sunday!!!

 

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