AN EXTRAORDINARY MISSION MONTH
This is a very busy month for me and I am already behind with this blog!!! October 20th will be World Mission Sunday and Pope Francis is trying to get us going with the theme...
THE CHURCH ON A MISSION
IN THE WORLD
The Logo
The logo of the Extraordinary
Missionary Month October 2019 is a missionary cross where the primary colors
refer to the five continents. The Cross is the instrument and direct sign of
communion between God and man for the universality of our mission, and through
its vibrant colors, a sign of victory and resurrection. The world is
transparent because the action of evangelization has no barriers or boundaries,
it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christian charity and the world
transfigured in the Spirit overcome distances and open the horizon of our minds
and hearts. The words Baptized and Sent next to the
image indicate the two characteristics of every Christian: baptism and
proclamation.
The Colors of the Logo
The primary colors of the
Cross are referred to the five continents: red for America, green for Africa,
white for Europe, yellow for Asia and blue for Oceania. The red recalls the
blood of the American martyrs, seeds for a new life in the Christian faith. Green
is the color of life and symbolizes growth, fruitfulness, youth and vitality.
It is also the color of hope, one of the three theological virtues. White is
the symbol of joy, the beginning of a new life in Christ: this is the challenge
that the old Europe is facing, so that it may be able to regain the
evangelizing strength from which it was generated thanks to so many churches
and saints. Yellow is the color of light, which nourishes itself with light by
invoking the true Light. Blue is the color symbolizing the water of life that
quenches our thirst and restores us along the path to God. It is the color of
heaven, a sign of God's dwelling with us.
The Pope is trying to get us to put our faith into action and get out of our comfort zones. That's the best way to grow. One of my big challenges was working in Sudan with diseases I had never heard of before, let alone treated. The need was so great that I knew I could offer something that was better than nothing when I was absent. So I stuck with it and did my best.
In May 2000, a very sick little boy, Adimo, came to our clinic in Nanyangacor Sudan. He had seen several witch doctors in another place without success. In desperation, he and his mother walked 120 miles over one week because the Antonov bomber had made the town where he was unsafe. He might have been 8, 9, or 10 years old but he only weighed 20 pounds. This is the weight of a child at one year of age!!! He had a disease called kala azar. It is a parasite that is spread by a sand fly that bites shepherds when they sit in the shade of an ant hill tending their livestock. It causes the person to waste away and die without treatment. He was so sick I thought he would die. The treatment was a very painful injection of a heavy metal every day for one month. He had almost no muscle to put the medicine into! His mother left him at the mission compound and walked three days to get home. He didn't see her for several years. We fed him nutrition biscuits along with the medicine and he lived. Then he went to school. And then he sent me an email last month. He is now about 28 years old and weighs 140 pounds. He has become an community health worker and wanted to say thank you.
I feel very grateful that I could be a conduit for healing that helped this little fellow to survive and now thrive. Let us remember that each one of us, by virtue of our baptism, is a mission in the world. We can do amazing things if we open ourselves to be a healing channel for the love of God who works through us.
