Transcript
Dear friends, I would like to pause with you for a while on two key passages of the Gospel of John. In this time in which we are preparing we are getting our hearts ready to welcome again the Savior in our lives. We jump to the time after His resurrection when the disciples were frightened and behind closed doors they were there waiting for what next. And in that precise moment the risen Christ came and poured out his Spirit on them and he said, as the Father has sent me, so I send you. The mission of the Church rests on those words. And it is not only words but it is our lives shaped after the model of Christ so that missionaries all around the world they should be embodiments of what the Lord was for those disciples. And this very episode in the life of the disciples is connected to another crucial moment before the Lord died and rose again. And it is when he told them, remain in me, as I remain in my Father. So mission has something to do with the remaining always united with the Lord and being sent by Him in the power of the Spirit to be his eyes, his hands, his heart, to raise the life of many brothers and sisters to give hope, to give courage. This is what we are reflecting on this First Sunday of Advent and I invite you to meditate on the value of mission understood as remaining in Christ and being sent by Him.