IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

Dt 4,32-34.39-40; Ps 32; Rm 8,14-17; Mt 28,16-20
27 MAY – MOST HOLY TRINITY – S
The Gospel offered to our meditation, placed by St. Matthew to close the whole life of Jesus on the earth in his body, first visible and then resurrected, requires to be examined word by word. Nothing of it must escape our attentive, wise and intelligent reflection, in the prayer raised to the Holy Spirit, to ask Him for every light of truth. The severity or heaviness of all his Word demands it.

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me”: All power on earth and in heaven belongs to the Father. Jesus is also from the Father through eternal generation. He is his Only Son. The Father gives his Son all his power. On the contrary, he places all of himself in the hands of the Son, so that the Son may give him to every man, as his only source of eternal life. It is on the foundation of this power that the apostles are sent into the world. The Father sends Christ with every power of salvation and redemption. Christ sends his apostles with every power of salvation and redemption. The apostles are from Christ as Christ is from the Father. The apostles must obey Christ as Christ obeys the Father. It is in the obedience of the apostles to Christ that the salvation of the world is accomplished.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all peoples”: Christ came and made the apostles his disciples. The apostles must go to the world and make all the peoples their disciples. In this command, all the false problematic of the Christian who wants to be in the world only an announcer of non-negotiable truths, indestructible first principles, other moral theories of the highest value, skips. The Christian social worker, almsgiving distributor, curator of the human body and defender of human justice, also skips. All these things are consequences of the mission, but not the end of it. The purpose of the mission is clear: the apostles are sent into the world to make disciples all peoples: disciples of the apostles, to be of Christ, to be children of the Father. If the disciples are not made, there is no mission. There is no obedience. There is no salvation.

“By baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”: The disciples are made by preaching the Gospel, explicitly inviting to conversion and faith in the Word of Jesus. Having made the disciples they must be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father gives them his fatherhood. But he gives it in the Son who gives his true sonship. He gives it through the communion of the Holy Spirit, always in him and through him. Without this baptism one remains out of the mystery of the Trinity. One does not even become a continuator of the mission of redemption of Jesus.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

“Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”: The teaching is needed to live in Christ as true sons of the Father, in full obedience to his will. The apostles live as true children of God and teaching every baptized person how to live as a true son of the Father, in Christ and in the communion of the Holy Spirit.

“And behold, I am with you every day, until the end of the world”: Jesus is with his apostles just as God was with Moses when he sent him to free his people from the slavery of Egypt. Jesus is with them to work together with them. It is He who must confirm all their Word, manifesting all his power of salvation and redemption. For Jesus to be with them, it is necessary that they are in his Word and obey his every command. Jesus certainly is not with whoever is ashamed to preach the Gospel, to invite to conversion and to faith, baptizing and teaching how the Gospel is to be lived. This is demonstrated by their way of being and operating. If the apostles do not obey Christ as Christ obeyed the father, there is no salvation.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us obedient to Christ Jesus.