Children’s Mission Mass 2026 (South)

Today the Church gives us two saints whose names are probably not the first ones that come to mind when we think about the Apostles: Simon and Jude.

We know Peter. We know John. We certainly know Judas, although for the wrong reasons. But Simon and Jude seem to stand quietly in the background.

And perhaps that makes them very good saints for a World Mission Mass.

Because most of the mission of the Church is carried out by people whose names will never appear in a history book. It happens because ordinary people decide that when God calls, they will answer: Here I am, Lord.

In our Gospel, Jesus goes up the mountain and spends the whole night in prayer. Then, when morning comes, he calls his disciples and chooses twelve of them to be apostles.

Simon is there. Jude is there.

Notice what happens first. Before they are sent, they are called.

That is important for every one of us here today.

Being a missionary does not begin with travelling to another country. It begins by knowing that Jesus has called you by name.

Saint Paul tells us today that we are no longer strangers or aliens. We are part of the household of God. He says that Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone, and that in him we are being built into a place where God lives.

Think about that.

Here in Tasmania, and thousands of kilometres away in Malawi, Catholics whom we may never meet are being built together into the same Church. We speak differently. Our schools look different. Our daily lives can be very different. Yet Jesus Christ is the same cornerstone.

That is why Catholic Mission asks us this year to turn our attention towards Malawi.

For us, Malawi can seem far away. We might find it on a map and then move on with our day. But World Mission focus asks us not simply to find Malawi on a map. It asks us to find the people of Malawi in our hearts.

Catholic Mission supports the local Church there as it serves communities experiencing poverty and hardship. When we support that mission, we are saying something very Catholic: you are not strangers to us. You belong to us, because together we belong to Christ.

And this is where mission becomes something each of you can understand.

You do not need to wait until you are older to become a missionary.

Mission happens when you notice somebody who is usually left out and make room for them.

Mission happens when what you have is shared rather than guarded.

Mission happens when another person discovers, because of the way you treat them, that they matter.

That is the beautiful challenge hidden in the song we will sing later about being servants to one another. Christian service is not about thinking ourselves more important because we are helping somebody. It is about recognising Christ in the person before us.

Jesus comes down from the mountain in today’s Gospel and finds a great crowd waiting for him. Saint Luke tells us that everyone was trying to touch him, because power came out of him and cured them all.

People came because they believed that meeting Jesus could change something.

That remains the mission of the Church.

The Church in Malawi is there so that people can encounter Christ. Catholic Mission is helping that Church to build a new school called St Peter’s for children just like you. And today, from our schools here in Tasmania, we become part of it.

Your generosity can travel further than you ever will.

Your prayer can embrace people whose names you will never know.

And your decision to live as a disciple of Jesus can make your own classroom, playground, and family more like the Kingdom of God.

Saints Simon and Jude were called from among the disciples and sent as apostles. Today Jesus calls us too.

So, when he asks, “Whom shall I send?” may there be hundreds of young Tasmanian voices ready to answer:

Here I am, Lord.

And may that answer travel from Tasmania all the way to our sisters and brothers in Malawi.

Most Rev. Anthony J Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
28 October 2026