Hope that walks with the poor
When Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, he left a lasting legacy, a message for World Mission Day 2025. It is intended to be read out on 18 October, World Mission Day 2025.
It will be like a message from beyond, and yet within or among, for those of us who joyfully continue the work of proclaiming the joy of the gospel. The theme of this message is that we be “missionaries of hope among all peoples”. To assist us, Pope Francis highlights some “aspects of our Christian missionary identity”. It is worth reflecting upon these because Francis designated this year to be the Jubilee of Hope and because hope is one virtue that is so desperately needed in our world today.
First of all, we are called to follow “in the footsteps of Christ our hope”. Francis challenges us to keep our eyes focused on Christ. Through the work and ministry of his missionary disciples, Jesus continues to accompany “all who are poor, afflicted, despairing and oppressed”, feeling their pain, listening to them and binding up their wounds. This means that we are called to go out into the streets of the world and become shepherds who, in those memorable words of Pope Francis, take on the “smell of the sheep”.
Secondly, Christians are called to be “bearers and builders of hope among all peoples”. Here Francis says, “Impelled by this great hope, Christian communities can be harbingers of a new humanity in a world that, in the most ‘developed’ areas, shows serious symptoms of human crisis: a widespread sense of bewilderment, loneliness and indifference to the needs of the elderly, and a reluctance to make an effort to assist our neighbours in need.” Given this situation, missionary disciples are called to do what God does or to follow God’s “style”: “with closeness, compassion and tenderness, cultivating a personal relationship with our brothers and sisters in their specific situations”. In this way, “we will also convey the compassionate heart of the Lord.”
A third aspect of this sense of identity is the renewal of the mission of hope. This should come about through the celebration of the Easter Triduum and a sincere renewal of our baptismal promises. This renewal begins with prayer, “especially prayer based on the word of God and particularly the Psalms”. As Francis goes on to say, “By praying, we keep alive the spark of hope lit by God within us, so that it can become a great fire, which enlightens and warms everyone around us, also by those concrete actions and gestures that prayer itself inspires.” Finally, Pope Francis insists that “evangelisation is always a communitarian process”. We do it together. In this way we grow together and we build up the Christian community and so become a visible source of hope in the world.
I hope this message will be read out on World Mission Day 2025. It will help to remind us of this man of great joy, who was also one who felt the pain, the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. But through it all, he urged us to hold on to hope.
Columban Fr Tom Rouse is the Regional Councillor for Aotearoa-New Zealand.
Mission Intentions
June - That the world might grow in compassion: Let us pray that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his Heart, learn to have compassion on the world.
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - June 2025
