Next weekend, we will join with the Church Universal in celebrating World Mission Sunday with its theme: “One in Christ, United in Mission”. This year’s World Mission Sunday celebration is unlike any other in our lifetime! First, 2026 marks the centennial milestone of this worldwide observance. Second, we celebrate it with a theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV who was himself a missionary priest and bishop for many years in Peru. While there, he spoke often about how dependent he was on the support generated by World Mission Sunday. Now, as our pope, his appeal is, “Please help me help Missionaries everywhere!” In his letter to all parishes throughout the world in preparation for the 100th World Mission Day, he wrote:
I wish to encourage the whole Church to continue its missionary journey with joy and zeal in the Holy Spirit. This requires hearts united in Christ, reconciled communities and, in everyone, a willingness to cooperate with generosity and trust. As we reflect on being one in Christ and united in mission, let us allow ourselves to be guided and inspired by divine grace, to renew in ourselves the fire of our missionary vocation and advance together in the commitment to evangelization, in this new missionary age in the history of the Church.
The mystery of union with Christ lies at the heart of mission. Before his Passion, Jesus prayed to the Father, “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us” (Jn 17:21). These words reveal Jesus’ deepest desire, as well as the identity of the Church as a community of his disciples. That is, a communion that flows from the Trinity and continues to be sustained by the Trinity. A communion at the service of fraternity among all human beings and harmony with all creation.
Being a Christian is not primarily about practices or ideas; it is a life in union with Christ, in which we share in his filial relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. This union gives rise to mutual communion among believers and is the source of all missionary fruitfulness.
We are able to respond to his heartfelt appeal through our participation in World Mission Sunday. This year, we are privileged to have Father Tulio Ramirez, mxy, speak to us at all the Sunday Masses about the missions. Fr. Ramirez is from Colombia, South America. He is a member of the Yarumel Mission Society who has served the people of God in Kenya and Ethiopia as well as in the Bronx. The Yarumel Mission Society was founded 99 years ago with the goal of witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ among people and cultures where the Gospel has not yet been fully preached. This Mission Society ministers in Angola, Bolivia, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Panama and Thailand.
We can all support the missions for, as Pauline Jaricot, who was the inspiration for World Mission Sunday, once wrote, “some give to the missions by going; some go to the missions by giving.” Please be generous in your support of the universal mission of the Church.