Brothers and sisters, on this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Word of God presents us with a fundamental requirement of Christian life: conversion to Christ, light of the world, and the ecclesial communion that flows from it. Today’s liturgy is illuminated by the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, an exemplary figure of faith transformed by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
The historical and spiritual context of the texts is illuminating: the prophet Isaiah addresses a people ravaged by Assyrian domination. The regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, humiliated throughout history, become the site of a divine promise: God never abandons those areas of humanity that are afflicted. This promised light foreshadows the complete revelation of Christ, ‘light of the nations,’ as emphasised in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, no. 1. Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, addresses a Church divided by competing allegiances. He re-centres faith on the essential: Christ crucified. The Second Vatican Council (Ad gentes, no. 2) reminds us that ‘the Church derives its origin from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit,’ and not from human strategies. In the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus begins his mission in Galilee with a radical call to conversion: ‘Repent.’ He calls disciples to join him in his salvific mission. This missionary dynamic remains constitutive of the Church, which is called to be ‘missionary by nature’ (Ad gentes, no. 2).
Three main messages emerge from today’s readings: the first message is that of light: God intervenes in history to free man from the darkness of sin and death. This is what Pope Benedict XVI emphasised when he said that “the Christian faith is first and foremost an encounter with an event, with a Person…” (Deus caritas est, no. 1). The second message is the constant call to conversion. The conversion of Saint Paul is the model offered to us today: it is an interior transformation that leads to a universal mission. It is to this conversion that Pope Francis invited the Church when he said that missionary conversion challenges the whole Church to go out of herself to proclaim the Gospel (Evangelii gaudium, no. 27). The third message is the demand for unity. Crisis, division, and the call to conversion are characteristics of today’s texts; they remind us that division undermines the credibility of the Christian message. I am currently working on a thesis on Malian commentators’ interpretations of the Koran, in which Christian division is very often cited as a sign of false Christian faith. We can therefore understand the urgency of the words of Saint John Paul II, who reminded us that Christian unity ‘is not an accessory, but a condition for the world to believe’ (Ut unum sint, n. 99).
These messages are relevant for our time and for our mission in Africa. Indeed, in a contemporary context marked by social and ideological fragmentation both within and outside the Church, the Church is called to be a living sign of communion. It is the new evangelisation that actualises the mystery of the Incarnation and makes it tangible. Pope Francis’s observation is worth highlighting here. While social networks offer new possibilities for evangelisation, this must not be reduced to a mere communication strategy (Evangelii gaudium, no. 34). The Church must be present in a way that transforms the world and all its structures from within. For us as Missionaries of Africa, the challenge is to bear witness to the living Christ through words rooted in the teaching of the Church and a coherent life. The mission cannot be credible without constant personal conversion, as the Directory for Catechesis (2020) reminds us in no. 5. This ongoing personal conversion is the living source of the Church’s unity in the diversity of cultures and sensibilities, a prophetic witness to the world. As affirmed in Lumen gentium, no. 1, the Church is called to be ‘a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race.’
On this day, as we celebrate the conversion of Saint Paul, the Word of God invites us to focus our lives on Christ, to allow ourselves to be continually converted, and to build communion. May missionaries, especially in the digital space and in the wounded areas of our world, be faithful witnesses to the light of Christ, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.
Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and watch over our contemporary mission! Amen.
By: Adrien Sawadogo, M.Afr.