October 2000 VOICE OF SHALOM

BE MISSIONARIES A person who has experienced the joy of encountering Christ cannot keep it for himself; he must share it. We must answer the unvoiced call for the Gospel arising from all over the world, the same call that reached the Apostle Paul in his second journey: "Come to Macedonia, and help us!" (Acts 16:9). Evangelisation is "help" offered to man, since the Son of God became man to make possible for man what he alone could not attain: "God's friendship and grace, the supernatural life which alone can bring fulfilment to the deepest aspirations of the human heart. Proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth, true God and perfect Man, the Church opens to all people the prospect of being "divinized and thus of becoming more human. This is the one path which can lead the world to discover its lofty calling and to achieve it fully in the salvation wrought by God" (Bull Incarnationis mysterium, n. 2). We must also be deeply convinced of the fact that evangelization is also a valuable service to humanity, since it prepares it to achieve the plan of God, who wishes to unite to himself all men and women and render them a people of brothers and sisters liberated from injustices and filled with feelings of authentic solidarity. Pope John Paul II Extract from the Holy Father's message for World Mission Sunday 2000

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