October 24, 2021 - World Mission Sunday 2021
Sunday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time – Year B
Jer 31:7-9
Ps 126
Heb 5:1-6
Mk 10:46-52
This Sunday’s main theme is God’s compassion, his paternal love. It helps his people and guides them to salvation in the old covenant and saves the world through Christ Jesus the one mediator in the new. Yet on the other hand, his compassion sees mankind’s poverty crying out to the Lord in search of mercy and help.
In the first reading of the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord emphasizes that the great crowd of those he brings back from the Babylonian exile include the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail. These are the most in need, those who have the greatest need for divine help. He does not forget anyone.
The whole nation that was deported had left in tears, going into exile under servitude and estranged from the homeland and the temple. Now God guarantees instead that everyone, strong and weak, will be brought back to consolations: […]: I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born:
Thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.
The responsorial psalm, written after returning home and after the disappointments caused by the new difficulties that had arisen, recalls the unexpected joy of home-coming:
When the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, we were like men dreaming. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad indeed.
We were... The Lord has worked miracles for us, but now we are again prey to opposition and suffering. Our hope, however, does not fail. We cry out to you, for only you can save us:
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the torrents in the southern desert. Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, They shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves.
Pope Francis writes in his Message to the Pontifical Mission Societies from May 21, 2020:
The joy of proclaiming the Gospel always shines brightly against the backdrop of a grateful memory. The Apostles never forgot the moment that Jesus touched their hearts: “It was about four in the afternoon” (Jn 1:39). The reality of the Church shines forth whenever gratitude is manifested within her by the free initiative of God, for “he loved us” first (1 Jn 4:10) and “it is only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). The loving predilection of God surprises us, and surprise by its very nature cannot be owned or imposed by us. One cannot be “necessarily surprised”. Only in this way can the miracle of gratuitousness, the gratuitous gift of self, blossom. Nor can missionary fervor ever be obtained as the result of reasoning or calculation. To be “in a state of mission” is a reflection of gratitude. It is the response of one who by gratitude is made docile to the Spirit and is therefore free. Without a recognition of the predilection of the Lord, who inspires gratitude in us, even knowledge of the truth and of God himself would, presented as a goal to be achieved by our own efforts, in fact become a “letter that brings death” (cf. 2 Cor 3:6), as Saint Paul and Saint Augustine were the first to point out. Only in the freedom of gratitude can one truly know the Lord, whereas it is useless and above all improper to insist on presenting missionary activity and the proclamation of the Gospel as if they were a binding duty, a kind of “contractual obligation” on the part of the baptized.
The second reading presents us with Jesus to whom God the Father says: “You are my Son: this day I have begotten you... You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek”. He has clothed himself in our weakness; for this very reason he feels compassion towards us and is an effective mediator for us - our only true Mediator - between God and man, having made himself flesh to redeem us from our sins.
Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him: You are my son: this day I have begotten you; just as he says in another place: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
We can have recourse to Jesus, who knows our trials and our miseries, with our shouts: “Son of David, have pity on me!”. And if circumstances or people try to stop us from shouting out, we can shout even louder, because surely He will call us to Him and our faith will save us:
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
Today we recommend reading the Message of the Holy Father Pope Francis for World Mission Sunday 2021.