Dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

The Month of August is dedicated as Mission Month for the fact that we, as the members of the Body of Christ, the Church, focus on Mission Activities. The Theme for Mission Sunday calls us to remind ourselves as parts of that Body, and the responsibility given to us to carry out the Mission of God in this world. Mission is the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church is commissioned for it. Thus, Mission Activity involves in sharing the Gospel of Christ; not just in preaching, but also in our daily living. The life of each Christian has to be in the experience of God's suffering and pain in and through His Son, our Lord Jesus. The Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Holy Communion also remind us of the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord. God in His love, sacrificed His Son for the whole world, and it is the duty of every Christian and believer, to share this Good News. As we share the love of God with others, God also works, and we become partners with Him in His Mission.

God shared His love with us in His Son, Jesus, and Jesus proved that love in His sacrificial death on the cross. He commands that we love God and our neighbours. If we engage ourselves in the Mission Activities without love for God and His Son Jesus, and love towards our neighbours and fellow human beings, all our efforts become meaningless. As we share the love of Christ, we need to remember that we are redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ - we are a redeemed community.

Our Baptism reminds us that we participate in the death and resurrection of Christ, and in turn, we lead others to come to this baptismal experience. We celebrate God's love every time we come to the table of the Lord. We remember the great sacrifice of Jesus and we are fed and nurtured at His table. We grow together and work together, and we also go out into the world to reach out to people with the commandment of our Risen Lord to make them His disciples.

May the sharing of this Good News become real to us; may we celebrate the common humanity in the pluralistic society we live in, keeping the Mission Goal of sharing our faith through our word and our deed.

May God bless us all