My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

St. Francis of Assisi is said to have instructed the friars, "Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words!" It is uncertain whether St. Francis ever really said that, but the sentiment seems consistent with his Franciscan spirituality. One of the pitfalls of this saying is that it can be used as an excuse for not talking about one's faith, using the rationalization that the Gospel is being sufficiently preached by one's good example. The problem with this is that often words are indeed necessary. We can do all kinds of good things for purely humanitarian and secular reasons. If we want people to know that our good deeds are motivated by our Catholic faith, we have to say so expressly!

Using words along with our good deeds is essential to the missionary activity of the church. Missionaries have traditionally built relationships with people by establishing schools, caring for the sick and feeding the hungry. But if they wanted people to join the Catholic Church, missionaries needed to tell them about their Catholic faith that motivated their good works, following the example of the love of Jesus Christ in caring for those in need (see Matthew 25:40). Otherwise, their good deeds would have been mistaken for simple humanitarian concern or secular benevolence. On the other hand, if we only talk about faith but don't put it into practice through our good works, our faith is empty. As we read in the letter of St. James, "Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17).

In 2013, Pope Francis wrote in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel, #120), "In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Matthew 28:19). . . . Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are 'disciples' and 'missionaries,' but rather that we are always 'missionary disciples.'" In other words, missionary activity is not limited to professionals who go off to foreign countries to preach the Gospel. All Christians can be and should be missionaries in their own homes, schools and places of work.

The Second Vatican Council II defined missionary activity as "the evangelization and the implantation of the Church among peoples or groups in which it has not yet taken root." This can be anywhere and everywhere. In this regard, it is noteworthy that Pope Pius XI, in 1927, declared St. Therese of Lisieux the patroness of the missions, even though she never left the cloister. That is in recognition of the fact that a contemplative prayer life is indispensable in the work of the missions. Holy Mass, eucharistic adoration, prayer and fasting are very important in the life of the missionary. They are the sources from which all missionary activity flows.

For parents, their primary missionary work is with their own children. This is an area of responsibility where words must be used to explain the faith that underlies our actions if the implantation of the church is to take root in their lives. There was a time when our culture would carry our faith, so to speak, by virtue of the fact that everyone else in a particular ethnic group was Catholic, so people would often become Catholic and go to church because that was a cultural expectation. That is no longer the case in a culture that is becoming increasingly secular. Being a disciple of Jesus requires an intentional decision and commitment to follow him.

St. Gregory the Great, who was pope from 590 until he died in 604, wrote that a "spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught."

What this means for families is that if parents take their children to church, but never talk to them about why they go to church and never say why Jesus Christ is so important in their lives, their children will not get the message of the meaning of the Gospel and will stop going to church once they are old enough or independent enough to do so. If they do understand that Jesus established the Catholic Church as the means of their salvation and recognize that participation in the Mass and the sacraments is the way to cultivate a deep personal relationship with Jesus, their Lord and Savior, they will remain faithful throughout their lives.

May God give us this grace. Amen.