MARFAM, WEEKLY FAMILY MATTERS E-NEWSLETTER 16 OCTOBER 2024.

There used to be a  time when we were young and enthusiastic about missionaries, (Who remembers Mgr Desmond Hatton?) Mission Month was focused on the men and women  who left their families behind, maybe for the rest of their lives, and came from overseas to plant the seeds of Christianity in a foreign country, even ours.  Mission Sunday focused on them and on the Pope’s Missionary societies for whom the Sunday special collection was held.  Over time our reality has changed as well as our perception. SA is hardly considered a mission country for missionaries from European countries, which also provided financial and material support.  Today there are more missionaries from other African countries, where there are more vocations, and who also supply missionaries to Europe, where vocations are scarce.  The traditional European financial support is also drying up for a region like Southern Africa.   

A very different focus on mission has come about and Pope Francis is regularly calling on everyone to be missionary disciples. “Baptised and sent” was the call in 2019. In his message for Mission Sunday 2024, “Go and invite everyone to the banquet,” he repeats that call but adds a new image too; Jesus imprisoned in the Church needing us to bring him out to the world and invite everyone to the banquet.  This does coincide with the process in the Synod on Synodality happening in Rome at this time.  Here from cardinals to lay men and women share as equals in the dialogical process, Conversations in the Spirit. They are all discerning together for a way forward for the Church’s mission in the world.  In addition the 2024 invitation is also to be given to “everyone”, not Catholics, or Christians only.  

According to the Holy Father’s message, the work of the four Pontifical Missionary Societies also continues.  “In the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council and my Predecessors, I recommend to all dioceses throughout the world the service of the Pontifical Mission Societies. They represent the primary means “by which Catholics are imbued from infancy with a truly universal and missionary outlook and [are] also a means for instituting an effective collecting of funds for all the missions, each according to its needs” (Ad Gentes, 38). The collections of World Mission Day in all the local Churches are entirely destined to the universal fund of solidarity that the Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith then distributes in the Pope’s name for the needs of all the Church’s missions.”  

From a family perspective, one of the 4 that has particularly interested me is the Holy Childhood society. This was started in the 19th century by a French bishop concerned about unbaptized children in China, where his French missionaries were active.   Working together with the Propagation of the Faith society he began a movement. of prayer and material cooperation, by children for children, with “One Hail Mary and one small coin.”  The movement is now active in 130 countries, and its focus is “children praying for children, evangelizing children and helping children worldwide.”  

I wasn’t aware of its existence in South Africa until I heard from Fr Jerry Browne in the diocese of Port Elizabeth about its greatly enjoyed launch with children from parishes around the diocese.  I do know that in Johannesburg an old lady, Mama Brigitte Khanyago, has developed and worked for many years with a children’s programme, Masolenyana, the Little Soldiers of Christ. Where else does this exist? There is much to be done through a mission for children by children.

On an eco-friendly level families could even encourage children to connect with others in different countries affected by climate change, and certainly pray for the thousands of children displaced and victims of the brutal wars being waged by fathers and mothers and at times even by child soldiers.  

Can this be an answer: “Let us pray that the Lord may guide us and help us to be a more synodal and a more missionary Church (cf. Homily for the Concluding Mass of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 29 October 2023).    TR FAMILY WEEKLY 16 OCTOBER 2024

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY 16 OCTOBER.

October 16.  Jesus’ condemnation.  There is a story about a farmer who wanted to give his farm animals a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs as a reward.  The hen was quite happy to provide the eggs, but the poor pig sure wasn’t.  “You give from excess,” he said, “I give from substance.”   Giving to God and the Church demands balance and discernment.  Wisdom is knowing what is what.  Some modern-day churches that demand that their members tithe to be in God’s good books manipulate people’s commitment for their own benefit and show little care for the needs of their own flock. 

Reflect, share, act. Scripture:  Woe to you, Pharisees, lawyers also, you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.  Luke 11:42-46.    Pope Francis:   The worship of the ancient golden calf (Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.  EG 55.  The mindset which leaves no room for sincere concern for the environment is the same mindset which lacks concern for the inclusion of the most vulnerable members of society.   The current model with its emphasis on success and self-reliance does not appear to favour an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak or the less talented to find opportunities in life. LS196.    Action and Prayer.  Do I literarily put my money where my mouth is? Pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in us the fire of your love, so that walking together we may renew the face of the earth.