Missionary Zeal

The call to be a missionary is with us everyday of our lives. As we have established, by virtue of our baptism, we are called to be missionaries and being called means to put our faith into practice by our works of charity. Being a missionary means that we are also evangelizers, called to proclaim the Good News with word and deed. In his Apostolic Letter on the Year of Faith, "Porta Fidei, n. 7, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI writes, "Today as in the past, He (Christ) sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples of the earth." I remember listening to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York on television tell about a pilgrimage that he was on to the Holy Land. The tour guide asked if there was anything else he would like to see and he said the road to Emmaus. The guide told the Cardinal that he could not do that because they really don't know where that road is. The moral of the story is that the road to Emmaus is any road that we travel. We encounter Christ in our brothers and sisters and we are to make Christ known to all peoples. As the guide for Mission Sunday states, "The encounter with Christ as a living Person, who satisfies the thirst of the heart, cannot but lead to the desire to share with others the joy of this presence and to make Him known, so that all may experience this joy." The highways that Christ sends us out to are the roads that we travel in life and the people that we encounter. Pray that during this Year of Faith, God will strengthen our missionary zeal so that we will not be afraid to evangelize and bring the presence of Christ to those whom we meet. Have a blessed day!!!