Paul Francis Spencer C.P.
Mission Sunday Supplement
At the heart of the mission of the Passionists is the conviction that the Passion of Christ is, in the words of our founder St Paul of the Cross, “the greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love.” Passionist Missionaries from Ireland have worked in many countries, including Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Paraguay, Argentina and India.
Missionaries abroad
Nowadays Ireland is more likely to receive priests and religious from overseas than to send missionaries abroad, but new forms of missionary cooperation mean that the tradition of the Irish Passionists continues to bear fruit through the support we give to the formation of our African Passionist priests and brothers. This year we have also been engaged in supporting the work being done among refugees by our brothers in Ukraine and Poland.
While much of our missionary effort today involves development projects or advocacy work, we cannot lose sight of the primary role of evangelisation in our task as missionaries. In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis recalls that “the primary reason for evangelising is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of him.” (Evangelii Gaudium 264) As men and women religious committed to witnessing to the love of God which flows from the Cross, Passionists are called to be people who have experienced God’s love and who can share that experience with others.
Commitment
In a recent message he sent to the Passionists, Pope Francis reminded us of what being committed to the Cross means. He wrote: “Do not tire of accentuating your commitment to the needs of humanity. This missionary calling is directed above all towards the crucified of our age – the poor, the weak, the oppressed and those discarded by many forms of injustice. The implementation of this task will require a sincere effort of inner renewal on your part, which derives from your personal relationship with the Crucified-Risen One. Only those crucified by love, as Jesus was on the cross, are able to help the crucified of history with effective words and actions.”
Ours is a simple but strong message: the love of God is revealed on the Cross, and each of us, religious and lay, is called to bring love into situations of suffering as Jesus himself has done.