"A strong call to commitment to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel to everyone, especially those who still do not know about it". This is the meaning of the World Mission Day that was celebrated yesterday. Before praying the Angelus on St Peter’s Square, Benedict XVI focused on the World Mission Day’s message "The nations will walk by its light", an excerpt from the Book of Revelation. This light "is that of God, revealed by the Messiah and reflected on the face of the Church", he explained. "It is the light of the Gospel that guides people towards the realisation of a great family, in justice and peace, under the fatherhood of the one good and merciful God", continued the Pontiff. "The Church exists to proclaim this message of hope to all humanity, which in our time ‘has experienced marvellous achievements but seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself’", as John Paul II wrote in his encyclical "Redemptoris missio". The Church then, guided by the Holy Spirit, knows that she is called to continue the work of Jesus himself proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which is ‘righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’". (continued) ” ” ” ” ” ” ” “
