Last Sunday, I had the joy and honor of presiding at the 11 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, there closing the Year of the Eucharist the late Pope John Paul II asked us to observe. At the end of the liturgy, we processed outside with the Blessed Sacrament, around the block, in a beautiful public expression of our faith that Jesus really and truly remains with us in the Holy Eucharist.

As I carried the Blessed Sacrament through the cathedral doors to go outside on that magnificent autumn Sunday, it hit me that we believers were also giving public expression to yet another aspect of our creed: that we are indeed to carry the effects of the Eucharist outside, to the world, to our culture, to society.

There is an essentially missionary dimension to every Eucharist. The final words of the celebrant are, literally, go. In fact, our common word for the celebration of the Eucharist, Mass, comes from the Latin close of the liturgy, “Ite, missa est,” “Go, you are sent.” As I carried the Body of Christ outside the cathedral, so are we all summoned to bring Christ to the world. We are missionaries, evangelists, apostles.

I mention this teaching to you now because this Sabbath we will observe Mission Sunday. We ask you to pray for and give to the vast missionary apostolate of the church.

You have heard me say before how proud I am of the missionary sensitivity of this archdiocese: our consistent generosity to the missions, our own parish, Sagrada Familia, in the Dominican Republic, the growing numbers of parishes who take on a “sister parish” in a developing country, and the impressive number of women and men from southeastern Wisconsin who serve Jesus and his church in the missions as priests, sisters, brothers, and lay apostles.

The missions need us very much!

Yet, it is also true that we need the missions very much! See, we are Catholics: that means that our faith is never some cozy, tidy, private, local possession. By its nature, it calls us beyond ourselves, it expands our horizons, it stretches our heart. Love for the missions does that.

Today we face the temptation of congregationalism. This view of the church sees religion as pertaining only to “my yard,” my parish. The larger diocese and community, the bigger church, the missions — sorry, no time, no interest.

“So now we’re supposed to help Pakistan after the earthquake! Come on! We had the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and now this? We have needs at home we have to take care of first….

“We’re not going to give any more money from our parish to that consolidated Catholic school to help those kids; hardly any of our kids go there ….”

“We don’t really buy into any of the goals and priorities of the archdiocese, or of what we hear Pope Benedict saying. We’ve decided to just stick to ourselves as a parish. We’ve got our own needs and plans….

Enough to make you wonder if now there is only one mark of the true church — mine — instead of the four: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.

I wondered — until I visited St. Catherine Parish in Granville for its 150th anniversary. Yes, it was a celebration of that proud, historical local parish. But then, at the offertory procession, the people brought up, not only bread and wine, but a check for $15,000 — a thousand for each decade of this parish’s life — for our mission parish in the Dominican Republic.

That’s charity; that’s Catholic.

A blessed Mission Sunday!