Holy Trinity

My brothers and sisters,
Before my mother died many years ago, she gave us her children her last message, that we should not stay in our home town, but we have to go far if we want to succeed in our life. The last message of someone who is to leave us for ever is very important. Usually we will do every effort to accomplish the message, and we will not feel at peace before it is accomplished.
Jesus had two chances to leave his disciples. The first time, during the last supper, the vigil before he gave his life for our salvation, he gave His last message for His disciples to do Eucharist in remembering of Him. This then becomes the source of our spiritual life. We keep His message about Eucharist as our precious heritage in this world. Then the second chance before he ascended to heaven, leaving his disciples for ever after his resurrection, he gave another message, the last one, as same as important as the first one, a message for the disciples to go into the whole world to proclaim the gospel to every creature, to spread the good news to all nations, to continue Jesus work as a missionary.
I said that this is as same as important as the first one, because mission is one of the characteristic of the living faith, one of the sign of a living church. So we can say that mission is a continuing part of the Eucharist. We only truly celebrate the Eucharistic celebration if after that we are sent to the world, to mission, to where ever we are, to proclaim the good news. Have you ever done this?
So this task, to be missionaries, is not only a task for a certain persons, not only for priests or religious or catechist, but also for all of us who believe in Jesus. But it doesn’t mean that then you have to leave your daily life to go to mission to the South of America or to Asia or to Africa as I do, to come here. It doesn’t mean also that you have to go from door to door with the gospel in your hand. No, that is not our way of proclaiming the gospel.
We know that there are two kinds of way how to proclaim the gospel, how to spread the good news, the first is by our way of life and the second is by our words. (Do you know which one of them is easier to do, to proclaim the gospel by our life or by our words? To proclaim the good news by our words is easier, what we need is only: we can talk or we can teach, but how we live what we teach … it is not easy!)
My father once told me a story about one of his friends who were converted to a church. He came to my father to convert him to his church, saying: join us quickly; the door of heaven will be shut soon! And my father answered him: you said that you have been saved, but why didn’t you talk to each other, you and your wife who live in the same house? Yes, in reality, they hate each other for years. And also, once Nietzsche, an atheist philosopher, said: how can I believe that the Christians have been saved if their way of life does not show that. So the first way to proclaim the gospel is by our life. We live as a people that have been saved. We live as Jesus brothers and sisters; and this is obligatory for all of us. When people see our way of life, our good deeds and then they are interested in becoming catholic, then the second way of proclaiming the gospel, by words, by teaching will follow.
In my country I found several cases like this. Some people came to me asking to become catholic. The reason is they saw good catholic family, their neighbor who are full of love and care, not only for themselves but also for the people around them. They can see a true love in these catholic families. They can see the living gospel in them. And this is more interested than many other good preaching.
My brothers and sisters
Jesus is leaving us by his ascension to heaven. But he will not abandon us as an orphan. He promised to send us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will guide our life to a life that Jesus wants us to be. He gives us His last message to continue His mission. This message is very important and we will not feel at peace until we accomplish it in our life. Jesus believes that we can do that by the help of His Holy Spirit. We can do that and He will help us. We can make our life as a living gospel, so that many people not only can hear about Jesus, about love, but they can see it and they can feel it in our presence. So don’t forget this: when the mass is ended, we are all sent to mission. And your mission may be in your family, in your school, in your neighborhood or even in the street … As Jesus said, Go into every corner of your life and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Be His ambassador of love! … and God bless you.