“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” ~ Henry Martyn
For many of us, we got our first taste of being a missionary people when we were young, especially if we attended Catholic school or religious education classes. For a lot of my generation, we regularly “bought pagan babies”. That is what the nuns used to tell us as we contributed our pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters. If we collected enough, we could “buy” a baby in a far-off land and even give that baby a Christian name.
While that may not have been the best way to introduce us to the work of the missions, it gave our young minds an opportunity to think about the many ways that we could be of service to others. We are all called by the Lord to be a missionary people. As Henry Martyn states, the nearer we get to Jesus Christ, the more missionary we want to be.
St. Paul said it a bit differently; however, it has the same message: “The love of Christ impels us.” If we truly love our Lord, we are going to want to do everything possible for Him. The more we love Him, the more we are going to want to do. The more we do, the more we realize still needs to be accomplished.
It even gets to the point that we will do anything — even to the point of laying down our own lives — for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom. The reality of God in our world is often blocked by the reality of sin that permeates this world of ours. It is the job of the Christian to peel back the veil of sin so that others can see the glory of God.
If we can introduce a soul to Jesus and that soul accepts His friendship, that is one more person that we can bring to the Lord. At the end of our days, God will be extremely pleased with the people who have taken the challenge of missionary servant seriously.
FAITH ACTION: Pray for all of those who are involved in the missionary activity of the Church that they may be safe as they invite others to consider the possibility of Christ in their lives.