God entrusted Mary with the mission of being the mother of His Son. At the annunciation through the Archangel Gabriel, God did not explicitly spell out her mission beyond this mandate. It was Mary who pro-actively discovered, that right from the time that she conceived Jesus, she had the mission of being the Christ-bearer in body, in spirit and in action. She accepted this mandate first by agreeing to it in her heart and mind, then conceiving it in her womb and finally expressing it in action. How did Mary execute the mission? In the first place she listened to what God was saying. Then she asked the one and only logical question: “But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?” And then after listening to some baffling stuff rattled off by Gabriel, she submitted in obedience and faith: “You see before you the Lord’s servant. Let it happen to me as you have said.” But her mission doesn’t end with her consent, conception and bringing to birth the Christ. Even before she gave birth to Jesus, she became the Christ-bearer to her cousin Elizabeth, who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit acknowledged the presence of the Christ in Mary’s womb, prompted of course by John the child who leapt in her own womb, on recognising the Messiah himself. And then she brought Christ to birth after nourishing Him in her womb. Following this she brought Him to be presented in the temple to fulfil the ritual obligations demanded by the Jewish law. She brought him perhaps every year to the temple of Jerusalem for the Passover festival in his childhood. As a missionary in action, she got him to manifest his divinity at the wedding feast of Cana, thus being instrumental in bringing the fulness of Christ into the scarcity of people’s lives. She brought His consolation and strength to the disheartened and frightened disciples who were demoralised at their own act of deserting the Master. She confirmed His mercy towards them - i.e., the pardon Christ had already extended them on the cross - by her comforting presence in the upper room, praying for them, praying with them while awaiting Christ’s promise to rise from the dead. And she continued to intercede for the disciples at the birth of the Church at Pentecost. And till the time she completed her earthly life she continued to bring Christ to the persecuted Church through her maternal intercession and inspiring presence. So, what do we learn from Mary as a Missionary? We learn that we have to Listen, Clarify and then Submit to God. We learn that the only mission we have in life is to bring Christ to the world. Often times we hear people telling us that we’ve got to figure out what God wants us to do in life. And so, we engage ourselves aimlessly almost our entire life, not knowing where we are headed, some of us searching for meaning, some of us drifting, most of us slogging through the daily grind of survival, and running after happiness that eludes us. Mary figured out what her life’s mission was. She teaches us that it is the same for us too: Be a Christ-bearer. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower as she is popularly known, and also the Patroness of the Missions, discovered her mission - "In the Heart of the Church, I will be Love." St. Josemaria Escriva, founder if the Opus Dei articulated the mission of all Christians to be "Alter Christus, ipse Christus" which means 'Be another Christ, Christ Himself.' Everything else we do in life – whether it is being in a family, a doctor, engineer, or civil servant, whether we are musicians or actors or sportsmen or whatever – all these are meant to help us accomplish this one and only Mission – Become the vessel through which you and I must bring Christ and His love, joy, peace, justice, patience, forgiveness, wholeness and health to our fellow travellers on life’s journey. In doing so we will be living out our Christian Vocation of being a Christ-bearer like Mary, and embracing the Missionary Manifesto of Jesus Himself who said: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for He has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)” May we embrace the call to be Missionary Disciples after the heart of Jesus and Mary.