◙ To the Apostles Jesus entrusted his mission and gave them his authority in the service of the Church: his Word which through evangelisation and catechesis prepares us to be followers of Jesus, Baptisim through which we become a part of his Body and members of the new people, the Eucharist through which we enter into the closest possible communion with Christ who has made himself the bread of life and the cup of salvation, Forgiveness through which we experience the mercy of God. Finally, he gave them the authority to transmit those powers to their successors through the anointing of the Spirit and the imposition of hands. In short, Jesus entrusts to the Apostles his own mission: to animate, to teach and to govern the Church, nourishing it with the Word and sanctifying it with the sacraments. The Church then, Catholic by nature and by vocation – that is, open to men and women from all cultures, peoples and nations – accomplishes its mission in the local Chuches. Therefore Paul and the other Apostles in founding new communities appointed those who in exercising their service of authority, might guide them and confirm them in the faith. The New Testament calls them presbyters and “episcopoi”. That chain has never been broken.

◙ Saint Ireneus, bishop of Lyons, has given us a list of the Bishops of Rome and of Smyrna, which goes back to St Peter and St Paul. In the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls there is a series of medallions with all the 267 Supreme Pontiffs from St Peter to the present one. Likewise, each diocese carefully preserves a list of its own bishops, to demonstrate the apostolic succession starting with the founder. Naturally they needed to be holy and coherent with the faith they professed and the Word they preached. Many of them bore witness to the faith even to martyrdom. In one of his pastoral letters Paul reminded Titus: “This is why I left you in Crete that you might amend what was defective, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. if any man is blameless .. for a Bishop as God’s steward must be blameless.” (Tit. 1, 5-7). We can therefore say that from the beginning this transmission of responsibilities and powers was established, from Jesus to the apostles, from these to their successors. For the first Christians, obeying their Pastors was the same as obeying Christ. The task to which the apostles devoted their time and energy was the preaching of the Gospel “until the ends of the earth.” This continues to be the only real mission of the Church, so that all men might come to a knowledge of the plan of God revealed in Jesus. This extraordinary news is: we are the sons of God and we can and must live as sons. The mission to proclaim and to bear witness to the Gospel is not only that of bishops, priests or monks, nor even of the more committed lay people. The missionary dimension involves every baptised person since every Christian is called to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”, hope and good news for everyone. Besides the apostles, the Church numbers among its preachers of the Gospel, bishops and priests, men and women religious and countless lay people married or unmarried who consecrate all or part of their lives to openly proclaiming the Gospel. Among those who in the first place preach the Gospel are parents and catechists.

◙ My dear readers, it really is a comfort to experience the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus who does not leave us orphans or without a mission to accomplish, but has given us his Spirit and made us evangelisers, so that all might receive the great news of the love of God that saves us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. I really hope and pray that the Lord may give you the strength of the love he gave to Paul of Tarsus when he took possesssion of him on the road to Damascus, so that from that day onwards he wanted to know nothing else but the Christ and forgetful of himself and of his past he strove ahead towards the future with a single aim of preaching the Gospel to the peoples. He was so steadfast that even though a prisoner and under military guard he spent the last two years of his life in Rome “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus quite openly and unhindered.” (Acts 28,31). 