“Looking at the mission ad gentes as at a big, huge work of mercy, both spiritual and material”. This is the call made by the Pope in his message for World Mission Day issued yesterday. “We are all called to go out as missionary disciples, each one offering their talents, their creativity, their wisdom and experience in bringing the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the whole human family”, Francis recalled: “Announcing God’s mercy, the beating heart of the Gospel, and proclaiming it in every corner of the Earth as to reach out to every woman, man, the old and the young, the children”, is the mission of the Church, called to do like the Father, who “since the beginning” has mainly gone close to the “weaker” ones, identifying “with the small, the outcast, the oppressed”. God “goes close to those in need, to be close to everyone, especially to the poor; He is tenderly involved in the real life of men just like a father and a mother would be with their children’s life”, and it is “actually to the women’s womb that the word used in the Bible to mean mercy goes back to: so, the love of a mother for her children, those children she will always love, in any circumstance, whatever happens, because they are the fruit of her womb”. “By welcoming and following Jesus through the Gospel and the Sacraments, through the action of the Holy Spirit, we can become as merciful as our heavenly Father is, learning to love like He loves us, and making our life a free gift, a sign of His goodness”, the Pope ensured. “The Church is the first community that amidst men lives on Christ’s mercy”, Francis said: “It always feels looked at and chosen by Him with merciful love, and from such love it borrows the style of its work, lives off it, and makes it known to people, in respectful dialogue with every culture and religious belief”.