Dear friends,

Today’s first reading is taken from the Prophet Isaiah. It speaks about a suffering servant whose greatness will be seen for all time. He will take upon himself the guilt of us all, and will bring many to union with the Father. This section of Isaiah was written over five hundred years before the Lord. But he certainly understood the coming Suffering Servant of God. In fact Isaiah even tells us that the Servant will die and yet be preserved from death.

This Sunday Jesus addresses those who wish to be great. Jesus spells out the price: not puffing oneself up, but by accepting some deflation. Not by talking about oneself, but by listening to the other person. Not by using others, but by allowing oneself to be used by others. In a word, by becoming a servant.

True greatness involves fatherhood, spiritual fatherhood - bringing out the potential in a child or by extension, in an adult.

In the second reading the author of the letter to the Hebrew tells us that Jesus is the perfect High priest. In fact, Jesus with his human nature is fully human and close to us, with his dive nature Jesus is fully divine and the same as the Father. So, Jesus is the perfect bridge between God and us. In Himself Jesus unites us with God. The pope in Latin is called Pontifex, which means the one who makes the bridge.

Today is World Mission Sunday. We celebrate the efforts of the Church to bring about the message of Jesus. We are asked to cooperate by living according to our faith, and by helping others to accept and live Jesus Message. Also, our cooperation can be done by praying for the missionary efforts of the Church and by contributing with our donations.

The church offers us two models of missionaries. The first, St. Therese of Little Jesus, she cooperated with her holy life and prayers. The second, St. Francis Xavier, he left Europe and went to Asia to preach the Gospel of Jesus.

The Christians in the world today are 2,195.000.000; the Roman Catholics in the world today are 1,120.000.000. In the USA, the Roman Catholics are 67,000.000

We Christians have grown to the 33% of the world population. There is still a long way to make Jesus’ message know to all the peoples of the earth.