“send them out two by two”

In the gospel today, Jesus sends out the apostles to be the first missionaries. Today, we are all called to be missionaries like the first apostles were.
 
What is a missionary? A missionary is “A person who is sent by Church authority to preach the Gospel, or help strengthen the faith already professed, among people in a given place or region. Essential to being a missionary, whether at home or abroad, is the desire to extend the Kingdom of Christ by preaching. Teaching, or other means of evangelization and catechesis.” [1]
 
Who are called to be missionaries? Those who are baptized into the Church are called to be missionaries. Jesus gave the authority over the apostles and through the apostles we are called to be obedient to Christ’s call of missionary work. On a universal church level, “Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men’: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe al that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am with you always, until the close of the age.” [2]
 
On a personal level, “No one should think that the call to salvation is completely answered by taking care of our personal welfare; that would no longer be Christian holiness, which is realized in the charity of Christ who gave his life for the redemption of the entire human race, in the love of his heavenly Father, which embraces all men. Every Christian is expected, though not all in the same manner, to spread ‘the gospel of salvation’ to others.” [3]
 
What is the nature (or mission) of the Church? The very nature of the Church is mission work. Her mission is the same mission of Jesus Chris and the Holy Spirit. “The Lord’s missionary mandate is ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity: ‘The Church on earth is by her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her origin the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love.” [4]
 
“By her very mission, ‘the Church…travels the same journey as all humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God.’ Missionary endeavor requires patience.” [5]
 
What motivates the Church to continue to inspire us to be missionaries? It is because the Bride of Christ wishes to draw all men to Him in every age.  “‘for the love of Christ urges us on.’ Indeed, God ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’; that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation.” [6] However, as the catechism goes on to say that not everyone has been presented the truth fully and needs us as missionaries to bring about the truth. “Because she believes in God’s universal plan of salvation, the Church must be missionary.” [7]
 
Along with bringing the truth to those who have not heard it or believe it, the Church also wishes that by missionary work we can bring back unity among Christians. “The Church’s mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. Indeed, ‘divisions among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the Church herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life her full catholicity in all its aspects.’” [8]
 
How do we do missionary work? Our mission is to pass on the faith “…we must ask ourselves to what extent we pass on to our family and friends the most precious gift that we have – our faith in Christ. When we contemplate this incomparable gift we should feel moved to act, for the charity of Christ urges us on (Cf. 2 Cor. 5:14) to help build up around us a world which is more just and more human.” [9] Some of us may be called to go somewhere in the world and help refugees or the poorest of the poor, but there will be many of us who are called to be missionaries in our homes, workplaces, and communities. We may be called to bring awareness to those who are in most of need of God.
 
Kolkata Missionaries of Charity Fr. Leo, priest, chef, and author of “Grace before Meals” was asked to come to Kolkata to teach the missionaries of charity, the order that Blessed Mother Teresa started. In the video he documents the work the sisters and their order are doing and footage of his time there.
 
Catholic missionary produces film to keep African children in school The video is about a news report on a documentary that was made for the children in Malawi Africa. The video will help bring awareness and help raise funds for the children in Africa.
 
We do mission work by bringing the faith to others. We go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel. It is also a long process that must involve Holy Mother Church to bring about the mission work of God. “It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are ‘a sign of God’s presence in the world,’ and leads to the foundation of local churches. It must involve a process of enculturation if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people’s culture. There will be times of defeat. ‘With regard to individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches and penetrates them, and so receives them into a fullness which is Catholic.’” [10]
 
Finally, we must ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in our missionary work for He is the one who moves the Church and thus ourselves in our missionary paths. “The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, ‘the principal agent of the whole of the Church’s mission.’ It is he who leads the Church on her missionary paths. ‘This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the mission of Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged on by the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road Christ himself walked a way of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which he emerged victorious by his resurrection.’ So it is that ‘the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.’” [11]

[1] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary pgs. 354-355
[2] CCC 849
[3] Divine Intimacy III, pg. 116
[4] CCC 850
[5] CCC 854
[6] CCC 851
[7] ibid.
[8] CCC 855
[9] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 16.2
[10] CCC 854
[11] CCC 852