Mission Sunday. Homily Notes. Erring on the side of generosity. 18.10.26

Three times in the first reading today, God says of Himself: “I am the Lord, there is no other.” In the responsorial psalm, we hear the name of “the Lord” ten times, fifteen if you count the response. And in the Gospel, Jesus basically tells us to give ourselves to God, not to money nor to Caesar. In a word, as Pope Benedict XVI once said, the primary and unique gift which the Church has to offer humanity is God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The mission of the Church is thus to proclaim Christ to humanity. For his part, Pope Leo’s message for this Mission Sunday is “One in Christ – United in Mission.” We start from Christ, together, as One Body, one Spirit in Him. But our unity in Him is for the purpose of mission, to bring Him to the world as He Himself was sent on mission by the Father to bring the world back to God. 100 years ago, Pope Pius XI established that World Mission Sunday would take place on the penultimate Sunday of October. The two aims of Mission Sunday are to pray for and to offer financial help to support the missionary work of the Church throughout the world. In this effort, we are all missionaries and form part of the single great mission to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

The donations you give today to Missio Scotland will go to build much needed infrastructure such as churches, schools, orphanages, clinics and dispensaries where the Church is present in mission lands. The aim is to help local Catholic communities to become self-sufficient. Last year, the donations of Catholics across Scotland funded poor dioceses and parishes, feeding and educating children, educating novices and seminarians and helping catechists and their families. The Church in a total of nine countries was helped, for example, in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

This year, Missio Scotland plans to help Church initiatives in Albania and Ukraine. In the Missio magazine for this year, we are informed about the work of the Vincentian Fathers in a town called Grude e Re in Albania. Albania suffered terribly from Communism. From 1967 to 1991 religion was outlawed. Churches became warehouses, cinemas and sports halls. Priests were imprisoned or executed, and the practice of the faith was forced underground. Thirty-seven men and one woman were martyred for their faith and were beatified by Pope Francis in 2016. Although Communism ended more than three decades ago, the effects remain visible in poverty, unemployment, addiction, organised crime and family breakdown. The Vincentians accompany the elderly, families, children, prisoners, homeless and those struggling with addiction or mental illness. They restore dignity and they help people believe once again that their lives have value. They are setting up a men’s refuge in a town called Vinoteke which is supported by Missio Scotland to provide accommodation, pastoral care and professional support for men who have experienced homelessness, imprisonment, addiction or family breakdown. They receive not only a roof over their heads, but the chance to rebuild a life. The Missio magazine tells the moving stories of two men whose lives the Vincentians have been able to turn around completely as a result of the men’s refuge funded by donations from Scotland.

The magazine also tells of the Franciscan Sisters’ community in Shkoder in Albania who have a centre for children beside their own religious house. The centre had been under the threat of closure due to lack of funds, but the help offered by Missio Scotland has stopped that from happening. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, some 50% of children in Albania have experienced psychological or physical aggression, while 26% between 11-15 have reported being physically abused. The Franciscan centre therefore fulfils a great need.

Help this year will also go to Ukraine to purchase electricity generators to see many poor and elderly through the cold winter (sometimes as low as -25 centigrade) made worse by daily Russian bombardments of energy infrastructure. Major attention will be given to Kharkiv near the front line and generators will be placed in parish and social centres which provide a place for people to receive a hot meal, recharge phones, meet with loved ones and also for children to receive education and socialise.

As Pope Leo says in his message for this Mission Sunday, our material outreach to the people and needs of mission lands must be rooted in our union with Christ. At the heart of every missionary effort is the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The Church is not an NGO, or a philanthropic or humanitarian organization: Her identity is rooted in Christ, nourished through prayer, the Word of God and the Sacraments. It is Christ whom we see in the least of our brethren and it is to Christ that we wish to introduce them or call them back. The work of Missio is a sign of hope and reconciliation in a world marked by conflict, division and mistrust.

We are all aware that the economy is very challenging at this time, and no-one should feel obliged to neglect their own genuine need to give to the special collection after Holy Communion. At the same time, let us err on the side of generosity for Albania and Ukraine. Think what you are prepared to pay for a night out, a holiday, or personal luxuries. What if it were your own grandparent who was freezing because of no electricity, or your own grandchild who was in need of protection or basic education? Remember the widow’s mite, not because it was a mite, a small amount, but, as Jesus Himself commented, because it was all she had to live on. When St. Paul was asking for help from one church community for the sake of another, he said that what gave him joy was not so much the generous amount of money they gave but that, in giving it, interest was mounting up in their account in heaven. Anyway, thank you for what you can and do give and may the Lord reward you as only He can. End with the prayer.