This Week’s Readings:
First Reading: Isaiah 53: 10-11. By his sufferings, the Servant of the Lord will bring men salvation.
Second Reading: Hebrews 4: 14-16. Jesus has experienced all the weaknesses and difficulties of human conditions.
Gospel: Mark 10: 35-45. Anyone who wants to be leader must first of all a servant.
Points for Reflection from Fr Carlo Tei
World Mission Sunday, which we celebrate today, on 29th Sunday of Year B, comes every year to remind us that the Church’s most important duty is the preaching of the Gospel.
We read in today’s Gospel, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The same truth is proclaimed in the Creed when we say of Jesus: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.”
Most people of the world are still waiting for someone to announce to them the news of salvation. After two thousand years since the coming of the Son of God into the world, only about one person in five is Christian. Yet, Jesus Christ is their only Saviour, and he commissioned his disciples to the service of revealing him to the world: “Go and teach all nations.”
Most of the people to whom we are called to reveal Jesus Christ are not atheists, because for some good reason they already believe in God. Yet their knowledge of God is weak and incomplete, sometimes mixed with error and darkened by sin.
God, in his mercy, has given mankind a surer knowledge of himself through the history of the People of Israel, and above all, through his Son Jesus Christ, who came into the world and gave us the New and Eternal Covenant, which unveils God’s plan of salvation. It is the news of the Crucified and Risen Son of God, the only Saviour and Lord of mankind, that his disciples have the mission to spread.
St Paul used to ask prayers for all people, saying that God “wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Gospel.” To this plea he added his own wonderful missionary work, which remains an inspiration and example for us all.
All of us, whether priests, religious or lay people, are called to do all we can to spread the Gospel: to tell everyone that there is no salvation but in “The Son of Man who did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
天主聖三，我們感謝你將教宗若望保祿二世，賜給教會，使他彰顯天父的慈愛、基督十字架的光榮，及聖神愛的光輝。他完全信賴你的無限仁慈，及聖母瑪利亞慈母般的轉求。他給予我們耶穌善牧的生動肖像，並為我們指出成聖是基督信徒日常生活的必然本分，又是通往與你永恆共融的道路。請你因教宗若望保祿二世的轉求，依照你的旨意，賜給我們所需的恩寵。願他早日被列入諸聖的名冊。亞孟。
