The Missionary is moved by Faith

          Every one of us has a desire to become a missionary one day somewhere in an unknown land. We all praise and admire the great works of missionaries. The life of great missionaries is what we sometime take a lot of interest to know about and, to imitate. But have we ever given a thought to the fact that there is some internal force which moves a particular missionary to do what he does. We might glorify the deeds of missionaries; however we must not forget that a person is a missionary because of his mustard-seed like faith in God. Yes, it is his faith in almighty God which moves a missionary to do great works of charity for the people of God and even for the enemies of God.

            Each missionary expresses his desire to become a missionary and go to the remotest place because of his belief in the Lord. He listens to God’s voice speaking to him, calling out his name to do His will. Thus a missionary becomes a messenger of God because of his faith and in return, God makes him the instrument of faith to the others.

            Faith, as everybody knows, is one’s total surrender to God and to His infinite will. It is this aspect of faith that leads a person to empty himself, his selfish motivation and to generously offer himself in the service of others. Faith is what makes one’s relationship with God stronger based on mutual understanding and love. And we can see this same attitude in a missionary.

            This year we celebrate the Year of Faith, so it becomes essential for all of us  to look at the life of different missionaries who have toiled hard and worked zealously for the cause of spreading the Kingdom of God. We can see in them the aspects of mystics, prophets and servants of God, always working tirelessly to give Jesus to others.

-Cl. Aristo Andrat

-->

AREN’T WE MISSIONARIES OF LOVE?

            Love existed since the beginning. It was manifested in the unity of the Holy Trinity. The Father’s love for the son and that of the son towards the father is symbolically expressed in the birth of the Holy Spirit. God created man out of love. God later sent prophets and messengers to communicate his love. When no one would believe in this message that ‘He is love’, he sent his only son as a complete manifestation of his Love. He himself is Love. When dying on the cross for our salvation he gave the fullest expression of the Father’s love.

            The Prophets and messengers were truly the missionaries of love who cried out for the people’s repentance to return to the merciful God. Jesus, though God, came in humility to sacrifice himself for our sake. We are all called to follow Christ in this example of humility and self-gift. We become missionaries after the heart of Christ to proclaim the Good News that “God is LOVE”. We make the word of God incarnate in our lives and we become authentic and credible witness to the ‘message’ and to ‘him’ whom we are proclaiming.

            What we require is to daily meditate, assimilate and interpret God’s word. Likewise, in the light of God’s word reading the signs of the time we interpret our present life situation. We totally give of ourselves to the service of the poor, the marginalised and we cry out against poverty and injustice. We defend and promote Human dignity and respect. We must be missionaries of love, denying one’s own self for the work of God in the service of others.

                        Nazarius Kharkongor SDB