Missionaries of the Sacred

It is the task of every follower of Christ, every baptized Christian, to proclaim the gospel in word and action. Let­ting people know the message of salvation, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is what we mean by “building up the Church.” It is a sharing of the blessings we have re­ceived, an offering to others of the salvation we have experienced. In this sense, every Christian is a mission­ary, sent to carry on the mission of Jesus. Whether we call it “building up the Church” or “building up the Body of Christ” or “building up the Kingdom of God,” the task is the same: to show others how God has touched and influenced our lives by the sending of God’s Son.

Each follower of Christ does this within the context of his/her circumstances or situation. A teacher spreads the Good News by working with students; a physi­cian does it through the medical profession; parents teach Christian values and virtues to their children. Some individuals live the Gospel by coming together as a group in order to have a greater impact on the world around them. That is why religious communi­ties, like the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, are formed. Each religious community lives a particular as­pect of the Gospel message. This is called a charism.

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, like all Christians, are on a mission to build up the Church. Our particular charism focuses on the Heart of Christ in building God’s Kingdom. That means that the part of the Gospel mes­sage we stress the most is God’s love, revealed in the Heart of Jesus. We build up the Church by bringing God’s love to all and any situations in which we find ourselves.

For example, our missionaries in Watertown, New York work in parishes and hospitals, focusing on how the heal­ing love that Jesus brought to people continues in the present. In Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish, a day-care center housed in the former parish school building provides the setting to reveal God’s love to the “little ones.” Another way the Watertown MSC continue the mission of Jesus is through the Sacred Heart Foundation, an organization of lay men and women who raise funds and distribute grants for the education of MSC seminar­ians throughout the world.

Another example comes from our Center Valley, Penn­sylvania, community where our elderly and retired mis­sionaries use their prayer life to build up the Kingdom. They receive prayer requests from all over the country and offer these to the Lord.

In summary, all of us are missionaries, sent on a mission to continue the saving work of Jesus Christ. By what we say and do, by the way we treat others, by the example we give, whether in a factory, a board room, a parish, a bank, or our kitchen at home, we are invited always to “build up the Church.”

V. Rev. Raymond Diesbourg, MSC
Provincial Superior
Missionaries of the  Sacred Heart