Message of the Holy Father for the 99th World Mission Sunday of the Jubilee Year 2025
Dear brothers and sisters!
For World Mission Day in the Jubilee Year 2025, whose central message is hope (cf. Bull Spes non confundit, n. 1), I have chosen this motto: "Missionaries of hope among peoples". It reminds every Christian and the Church, the community of the baptized, of their fundamental vocation to be, in the footsteps of Christ, messengers and builders of hope.
I wish everyone a time of grace with the faithful God who has reborn us in the risen Christ "for a living hope" (cf. 1 Pet 1:3-4). I wish to recall some relevant aspects of Christian missionary identity, so that we may let ourselves be guided by the Spirit for all eternity" (Heb 13:8). In the synagogue of Nazareth, he declared the fulfillment of Scripture in the "today" of his historical presence. He thus revealed himself as the One sent by the Father, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to bring the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to inaugurate "the Lord's year of grace" for all mankind (cf. Lk 4:16-21). In this mystical "today", which lasts until the end of the world, Christ is the fulfillment of God's Salvation for all, and may we burn with holy zeal for a new evangelizing season of the Church, sent to rekindle hope in a world over which dark shadows hover (cf. Lett. enc. Fratelli tutti, nn. 9-55).
1. In the footsteps of Christ, our hope. As we celebrate the first ordinary Jubilee of the Third Millennium, following that of the year 2000, we keep our gaze fixed on Christ, who is at the center of history, "the same yesterday, today and Salvation for all, especially for those whose only hope is God. In his earthly life, he "went about doing good and healing all" from evil and the Evil One (cf. Acts 10:38), restoring hope in God to the needy and the people. Moreover, he experienced all human frailties, except that of sin, even passing through critical moments that could lead to despair, as in the agony of Gethsemane and on the cross. But Jesus entrusted everything to God the Father, obeying with total trust His plan of Salvation for mankind, a plan of peace for a future full of hope (cf. Jer 29:11). He thus became the divine Missionary of hope, the supreme model of those who, over the centuries, carry forward the mission received from God, even in extreme trials. Christ continues his ministry of hope for humanity. Through His disciples, sent to all peoples and mystically accompanied by Him, the Lord Jesus continues His ministry of hope for humanity. He still reaches out to every poor, afflicted, despairing and evil-ridden person, to pour "on their wounds the oil of consolation and the wine of hope" (Preface "Jesus the Good Samaritan"). Obedient to its Lord and Master, and with the same spirit of service, the Church, the community of Christ's missionary disciples, continues this mission, offering its life for all in the midst of peoples. While having to face persecutions, tribulations and difficulties on the one hand, and her own imperfections and downfalls due to the weaknesses of each of her members on the other, she is constantly impelled by the love of Christ to advance united to Him on this missionary path and to take up, like Him and with Him, the cry of humanity, and even the groaning of every creature awaiting definitive redemption. This is the Church that the Lord always and forever calls to follow in His footsteps: "Not a static Church, [but] a missionary Church, walking with the Lord on the roads of the world".
May all the baptized, missionary disciples of Christ, make His hope shine forth in every corner of the earth! Let us therefore feel inspired to set out in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, to become, with Him and in Him, signs and messengers of hope for all, in every place and in every circumstance that God gives us to live. May all the baptized, missionary disciples of Christ, make His hope shine forth in every corner of the earth! Christians, bearers and builders of hope among peoples.
In following Christ the Lord, Christians are called to pass on the Good News by sharing the concrete living conditions of those they meet, and thus becoming bearers and builders of hope. Indeed, "the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the people of our time, especially the poor and all those who suffer, are also the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of Christ's disciples, and there is nothing truly human that does not find an echo in their hearts" (Gaudium et spes, n. 1). I am thinking in particular of you, missionaries ad gentes (...) Thank you from the bottom of my heart! This famous statement of the Second Vatican Council, which expresses the feeling and style of Christian communities in every age, continues to inspire their members and help them to walk with their brothers and sisters in the world. I am thinking in particular of you, missionaries ad gentes, who, following the divine call, have gone to other nations to make known the love of God in Christ. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Your lives are a concrete response to the mandate of the Risen Christ, who sent the disciples to evangelize all peoples (cf. Mt 28:18-20). You are a reminder of the universal vocation of the baptized to become, through the power of the Spirit and daily commitment, missionaries of the great hope given to us by the Lord Jesus. The horizon of this hope goes beyond fleeting worldly realities and opens up to the divine realities we already foresee in the present. Indeed, as St. Paul VI reminded us, Salvation in Christ, which the Church offers to all as the gift of God's mercy, is not merely "immanent, in keeping with material or even spiritual needs [...] totally identified with temporal desires, hopes, affairs and struggles, but a Salvation which overflows all these limits to be accomplished in communion with the only Absolute, that of God: Transcendent, eschatological salvation, which certainly has its beginning in this life, but which is fulfilled in eternity". Animated by such great hope, Christian communities can be signs of a new humanity in a world which, in the more "developed" areas, shows serious symptoms of human crisis: a widespread sense of helplessness, loneliness and abandonment of the elderly, difficulties in finding availability to help those who live alongside... Drawing from this source, we can offer the hope we have received from God (cf. 1 Pet 1:21), bringing to others the same consolation with which we are consoled by God (cf. 2 Cor 1:3-4).
In the human and divine Heart of Jesus, God wants to speak to the heart of every person, drawing everyone to his Love. "We have been sent to continue this mission: to be a sign of the Heart of Christ and of the Father's love, in em The Gospel, lived out in community, can restore us to an upright, healthy, redeemed humanity. Efficiency and attachment to things and ambitions lead us to be self-centered and incapable of altruism. The Gospel, lived out in community, can make us an upright, healthy, redeemed humanity. stirring up the whole world".
Renewing the mission of hope Given the urgency of the mission of hope today, Christ's disciples are called first and foremost to train themselves to become "artisans" of hope and restorers of an often distracted and unhappy humanity. I therefore renew the invitation to carry out the actions indicated in the Jubilee Bull of Indiction (cf. nn. 7-15), paying particular attention to the poorest and weakest, the sick, the elderly, those excluded from a materialistic and consumerist society. And to do so in God's style: with closeness, compassion and tenderness, caring for the personal relationship with brothers and sisters in their concrete situation (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, nn. 127-128). Often, then, it will be they who teach us to live with hope. And through personal contact, we can pass on the love of the Lord's compassionate Heart.
To this end, we need to renew the Easter spirituality we experience at every Eucharistic celebration, and especially during the Easter Triduum, the center and summit of the liturgical year. We are baptized into Christ's redemptive death and resurrection, into the Lord's Passover, which marks the eternal springtime of history. We are then "springtime people", with a gaze ever full of hope to share with all, because in Christ "we believe and know that death and hatred are not the last words" on human existence. This is why the Church will continue to go beyond all frontiers, to go out unceasingly, without tiring or becoming discouraged in the face of difficulties and obstacles, to faithfully accomplish the mission received from the Lord.
We continually draw strength from the Holy Spirit with zeal, determination and patience to work in the vast field of world evangelization. "The Risen and Glorious Christ is the profound source of our hope, and His help will not fail us in fulfilling the mission He entrusts to us".
In Him we live and bear witness to that holy hope which is "a gift and a task for every Christian" (La speranza è una luce nella notte, Città del Vaticano 2024, p. 7). Missionaries of hope are men and women of prayer, because "the person who hopes is a person who prays", as the venerable Cardinal Van Thuan pointed out, who kept hope alive during the long tribulation of prison thanks to the strength he received from persevering prayer and the Eucharist (cf. F.X. Nguyen Van Thuan, Le chemin de l'espérance, Rome 2001, n. 963). Let us not forget that praying is the first missionary action and at the same time "the first force of hope" (Catechesis, May 20, 2020). So let's renew the mission of hope through prayer, especially prayer based on the Word of God, and in particular the Psalms, which are a great symphony of prayer composed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Catechesis, June 19, 2024). The Psalms teach us to hope in adversity, to discern signs of hope and to have a constant "missionary" desire for God to be praised by all peoples (cf. Ps 41:12; 67:4).
By praying, we keep alive the spark of hope, kindled by God within us so that it becomes a great fire that illuminates and warms all around us, including through concrete actions and gestures inspired by prayer.
Finally, evangelization is always a community process, as is the character of Christian hope (cf. Benedict XVI, Lett. enc. Spe Salvi, n. 14). This process does not end with the first proclamation or with baptism, but continues with the building of Christian communities through the accompaniment of each baptized person along the path of the Gospel. In modern society, belonging to the Church can never be taken for granted. The missionary action of transmitting and forming mature faith in Christ is therefore "the paradigm of every work of the Church" (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, n.15), a work that demands communion of prayer and action. I urge all of you - children, young people, adults, the elderly - to take an active part in the common evangelizing mission, through the witness of your lives and prayers, through your sacrifices and generosity. Thank you so much for all this! Dear sisters and brothers, let us turn to Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ our hope. Let us entrust to her this wish for the Jubilee and for the years to come:
"May the light of Christian hope reach everyone as a message of God's love addressed to all! May the Church be a faithful witness to this proclamation in every part of the world" (Bulle Spes non confundit, n. 6).
