Are You Called to Be a Missionary?

Are you called to be a missionary? You may be one already! Saint
Francis Xavier and Saint Therese of Lisieux are co-patrons of
missionaries, although they lived very different lives. While St.
Francis traveled all over the world proclaiming the gospel of
Christ, St. Therese was unable to travel and did what she could in
her own town. Both were missionaries in their own right. Being a
missionary isn’t about traveling or living a crazy and
unpredictable life. It’s about spreading the word of God to those
who need to hear it. So the question is, are you called to be a
missionary? As baptized Christians, we are all called to be
missionaries in our own unique way. By living the life God has laid
out for us, we can evangelize exactly who God wants us to reach,
just by doing our best to live according to his commandments. This
is also a part of the universal call to holiness, which not only
states that every person is called to be a saint, but also that
every person is called to be an apostle—or missionary—of Christ.
St. Francis Xavier lived in a Christian era, and had to leave his
home in order to evangelize. We, however, live in a post-Christian
era, where the majority of people are not God loving people. The
era we are living in right now holds the same kind of ignorance of
Christ that the apostles lived in. This means that we don’t have to
go anywhere to evangelize. We can start being missionaries right in
our own home towns. St. Francis and St. Therese weren’t
missionaries because of where they went—they were missionaries
because of their hearts. There are so many people in our daily
lives that don’t know God. Let us live out our call as missionaries
and bring Christ to those God has given us.