October 24. Sunday  30B.  Mission Sunday.  Fr Peter read a portion of the message of Pope Francis on MISSION SUNDAY  2021.” “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20) On World Mission Day we recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel. Let us remember especially all those who resolutely set out, leaving home and family behind, to bring the Gospel to all those places and people athirst for its saving message. We are inspired to be courageous and to beg “the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2). We know that the call to mission is not a thing of the past, or a romantic leftover from earlier times. Today too Jesus needs hearts capable of experiencing vocation as a true love story that urges them to go forth to the peripheries of our world as messengers and agents of compassion. He addresses this call to everyone, and in different ways. We can think of the peripheries all around us, in the heart of our cities or our own families. Universal openness to love has a dimension that is not geographical but existential. It is especially so in these times of the pandemic. To be on mission is to be willing to think as Christ does, to believe with him that those around us are also my brothers and sisters. May his compassionate love touch our hearts and make us all true missionary disciples.”  Fr Peter continued, “As I read this I couldn’t avoid thinking about all the health-care and frontline workers everywhere who have surely displayed remarkable compassion over the last eighteen months while the pandemic has been raging. They are in many countries, believers practicing many different religions and some with no belief in a loving God at all.   Is this not also the fraternity that Pope Francis and the Muslim Grand Imam are promoting?  Should this not be seen as a universal path of love and compassion.  Is this to be the future of our society?  Taking to heart the desire of Jesus, “that they may all be one.”   FT 278- 80,                                                       A journey of peace is possible between religions.  Its point of departure must be God’s way of seeing things.  God does not see with his eyes, God sees with his heart and God’s love is the same for everyone, regardless of religion, even if they are atheists.  We believers need to find occasions to speak with one another and to act together for the common good and the promotion of the poor.   This has nothing to do with watering down or concealing our deepest convictions, for the deeper, stronger and richer our own identity is, the more we will be capable of enriching others with our own proper contribution. FT 282-3. Reflect, share, act and pray.   How have I tried to build fraternity today?