EXCERPTS FROM MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE WORLD MISSION SUNDAY 2011

…To all
The proclamation of the Gospel is intended for all peoples. The Church is “by her very nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has her origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, n. 2)…
This is “the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14). Consequently she can never be closed in on herself. She is rooted in specific places in order to go beyond them. Her action, in adherence to Christ's word and under the influence of his grace and his charity, is fully and currently present to all people and all peoples, to lead them to faith in Christ, (cf. Ad Gentes, n. 5).
This task has lost none of its urgency. Indeed “The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion... an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service” (John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 1). We cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought that after 2,000 years there are still people who do not know Christ and have never heard his Message of salvation.
And this is not all; an increasing number of people, although they have received the Gospel proclamation, have forgotten or abandoned it and no longer recognize that they belong to the Church; and in many contemporary contexts, even in traditionally Christian societies, people are averse to opening themselves to the word of faith. A cultural change nourished by globalization, by currents of thought and by the prevalent relativism, is taking place. This change is leading to a mindset and lifestyle that ignore the Gospel Message, as though God did not exist, and exalt the quest for well-being, easy earnings, a career and success as life’s purpose, even to the detriment of moral values.
The corresponsibility of all
The universal mission involves all, all things and always. The Gospel is not an exclusive possession of whoever has received it but a gift to share, good news to communicate. And this gift-commitment is not only entrusted to a few but on the contrary to all the baptized, who are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”
(1 Pt 2:9), so that they may declare his wonderful deeds…

It is important that both individual baptized people and ecclesial communities be involved in the mission, not sporadically or occasionally but in a constant manner, as a form of Christian life. The World Mission Day itself is not an isolated moment in the course of the year but rather a valuable opportunity to pause and reflect on whether and how we respond to our missionary vocation; an essential response for the Church’s life…

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