At the heart of the missionary call lies a Person: Jesus Christ, our living hope. From the synagogue of Nazareth to the Cross on Calvary, he reveals the face of the Father’s mercy and the power of a hope that never fades. His entire life was a mission of healing, reconciliation, and trust in God’s saving plan. In the “today” of salvation, Jesus continues to walk through the streets of our world, bending over the wounded, the poor, and the forgotten, whispering words of consolation to hearts darkened by despair. To follow him is to walk in this same spirit of compassion, becoming signs of hope wherever humanity suffers.Christ remains the wellspring of our hope, and he will never deprive us of the help we need to carry out the mission he entrusts to us. In his footsteps, we are called to share the Good News by sharing life itself. Hope grows when it is shared. Christians are not passive recipients of good news but bearers and builders of hope among all peoples. We proclaim the Gospel not only with words but through closeness, compassion, and tenderness — the very style of God.

Mission today means standing beside the lonely and weary, listening to the cry of creation, and accompanying the poor and excluded. Every act of mercy, every gesture of tenderness, every effort to restore human dignity becomes a seed of the Kingdom, a spark of divine hope that transforms the world from within. “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time… are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ.” To be a missionary of hope is to make another’s burden our own and to discover Christ waiting in each wounded heart.

This hope is not sustained by strength or strategy but by prayer. A missionary without prayer is a worker without breath. In prayer — especially in the Eucharist and the Psalms — we rediscover the courage to hope and the tenderness to serve. Prayer turns our gaze toward God’s promise and teaches us to see his light even in the midst of darkness. Like Cardinal François-Xavier Van Thuan, who found freedom in faith behind prison walls, every Christian is invited to become a “prisoner of hope” — one whose heart remains open to God’s future even when everything seems lost. “The person who hopes is a person who prays.”

Every mission begins with a yes like Mary’s. In her, hope took flesh. She teaches us to listen, to trust, and to walk in faith even when the path is hidden. As Mother of the Church and Star of Evangelization, she accompanies us in this Jubilee Year, guiding us to make Christ’s hope shine in every corner of the earth. “May the light of Christian hope illumine every man and woman as a message of God’s love addressed to all.”

Prayer

Lord Jesus, Missionary of the Father’s love,
make us witnesses of your hope.
Teach us to speak your Word with courage,
to touch wounds with tenderness,
to pray with perseverance,
and to walk humbly with all peoples.

May our lives proclaim that hope does not disappoint,
because your love has been poured into our hearts.
Amen.