Pope Francis waves as he leads the Angelus on 15 July from the window of his studio overlooking St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Photo: Fabio Frustaci/CNS.
By Cindy Wooden
Pope Francis reminded some 15,000 people gathered at St Peter’s Square on 15 July that all Christians are called to be missionaries, concerned more with sharing the Gospel than with earning money or even with being successful at winning converts.
Before reciting the Angelus prayer at his address, the Pope said: “A baptised person who does not feel the need to proclaim the Gospel, to announce Christ, is not a good Christian”.
The Supreme Pontiff was commenting on Sunday’s Gospel reading, which told the tale of how Jesus sent the disciples out two-by-two to preach and to heal in his name.
“It was a kind of apprenticeship for what they would be called to do with the power of the Holy Spirit after the resurrection of the Lord,” the Pope explained.
Speaking only in the name of Jesus, he said, “the apostles had nothing of their own to proclaim and none of their own abilities to demonstrate, but they spoke and acted as emissaries, as messengers of Jesus”.
“This Gospel episode concerns us, too, and not only priests, but all the baptised, who are called to witness to the Gospel of Christ in all the situations of life,” the Pope added.
Christians fulfil their mission, he said, when their proclamation is motivated only by love for and obedience to Christ and when the only message they share is Christ’s.
A couple takes a selfie as Pope Francis leads the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St Peter’s Square on 15 July at the Vatican. Photo: Fabio Frustaci/CNS.
In the reading from St Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples “to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, or money in their belts”.
The poverty and simplicity of lifestyle Jesus asks for, the Pope continued, were meant to make the disciples of yesterday and today “free and light”.
Jesus, he said, calls his disciples to set out as “messengers of the kingdom of God, not powerful managers, not unmovable functionaries [and] not stars on tour”.
Pope Francis said that although all the baptised are sent out on mission by Christ, they go with no guarantee of success.
“This, too, is poverty: the experience of failure”.
The Pope prayed that Mary, “the first disciple and missionary of the word of God, would help us bear the message of the Gospel in the world with a humble and radiant exultation that goes beyond every refusal, misunderstanding or tribulation”.