Reflections of a Combonian on Missions Day
With one week to go before Oct. 20, a Comboni missionary’s scattered thoughts on World Mission Day
Father Alessio Geraci, born in 1983, decided to become a Comboni missionary at the age of 27. After gaining various missionary experiences in Argentina, Peru and Padua, as well as among migrants at the Centro Astalli in Palermo, his hometown, he left again a few weeks ago for Peru, where he will stay for the next 15 years
From the outskirts of Lima, I continue to experience that the mission is to look at everyone, without excluding anyone, with the same gaze full of tenderness and mercy with which God looks at us and loves us. Mission is therefore also to humanize all sectors of this society that is constantly being dehumanized by ideologies and the savage worship of idols.
Pope Francis reminds us in the DOMUND 2024 message that “even today, in a world torn apart by divisions and conflicts, the Gospel of Christ is the sweet and strong voice that calls people to meet each other, to recognize each other as brothers and to enjoy harmony in the midst of differences.
God wants “all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).
That is why we never forget in our missionary activities that we are sent to proclaim the Gospel to all and “not as one who imposes a new obligation, but as one who shares a joy, points to a beautiful horizon, offers a desirable banquet”.
The universal mission requires the commitment of all. That is why it is necessary to continue the journey toward a fully synodal-missionary Church at the service of the Gospel.
Synodality is in itself missionary and, vice versa, mission is always synodal l. Therefore, close missionary cooperation is even more urgent and necessary today in the universal Church and in private churches».
(Father Alessio Geraci, Oct. 20, 2024)
Sources
- Father Alessio Geraci’s Facebook Profile
Images
- Father Alessio Geraci