Go into all the world; preach the Gospel to every creature, we read in the responsorial Psalm of the Mass. These are clear words of Christ: from the task to be carried out by his disciples in every age he excludes no people or nation, no person. No one whom we meet is excluded; the Lord calls everyone: the very old and the very young, the child who is babbling his first words and those who are in the fullness of life, the neighbor, the company manager and the employee.... In fact, the Apostles met very diverse people: some were culturally superior, others belonged to peoples who did not even know that Palestine existed, some occupied important positions, others exercised manual trades of little importance in the life of their nation.... But no one was excluded from preaching. And those who at other times showed themselves cowardly and lacking in courage were later fully aware of the universal mission entrusted to them.
"Each generation of Christians has to redeem, to sanctify its own time: for that, it needs to understand and share the anxieties of other men, its equals, in order to make known to them, with the gift of tongues, how they should correspond to the action of the Holy Spirit, to the permanent outpouring of the riches of the divine Heart. It is up to us Christians to proclaim in these days, to the world of which we are and in which we live, the old and new message of the Gospel. In this evangelizing task we must take into account "a completely new and disconcerting fact, namely, the existence of a militant atheism that has already invaded many peoples"; an atheism that wants people to turn against God, or at least to forget him. Ideologies that use powerful means of diffusion, such as television, the press, the cinema, the theater..., before which many Christians find themselves defenseless, without the necessary formation to confront them.
"To all these men and women, wherever they are, in their moments of exaltation or in their crises and defeats, we must make known the solemn and categorical proclamation of St. Peter in the days following Pentecost: Jesus is the cornerstone, the Redeemer, the whole of our life, for apart from him no other name under heaven has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
The Lord uses us to enlighten many. Let us think today of those who are closest to us: children, siblings, relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors, clients.... Let us begin with them, regardless of the fact that at times it may seem to us that we are not up to the task, that we are not enough for all that needs to be done. The Lord will multiply our strength, and our Holy Mother Mary, Regina Apostolorum, will facilitate our constant, patient and audacious task.