In this year when many of the Gospel readings come from Saint Matthew, the Gospel for Ascension Day is what has traditionally been called “The Great Commission” - Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples which concludes the Gospel (Matthew 28: 16-20). As in Mark’s Gospel, Matthew depicts the disciples meeting the risen Jesus in Galilee, and he does not shy away from the fact that they had doubts. However, the words of Jesus are designed to empower them, to outline a program for the future, and to give them comfort.
“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.”
 
There are three parts to the instruction. First, the risen Jesus reassures them about his role. He is the center of God’s plan, the connection between heaven and earth, given all power and authority. It’s a similar statement to the one we heard from the Gospel of John two weeks ago: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. Then, because Jesus is who He is, we must take seriously the second part of the instruction, the specific directions which are a commission not just to the eleven disciples present at that time but to Christians of every time and place. We are to go, to reach out to people far and near; we are to baptize in the name of the Trinity (this is, in fact, the earliest example of the formula which we use to begin every Mass); and, finally, baptism is to be followed by teaching, so that we deepen our understanding of the person of Jesus and begin “to observe all that I have commanded you”. In other words, teaching leads to practice, to the embodiment of our faith in our lives. The third and concluding part of the commission is a promise for the time beyond the Ascension. The bodily Jesus will depart, and yet He will remain present with us always “until the end of the age”. We recognize that presence in the Church, our fellow Christians, in the words of Scripture and most especially in the Eucharist; but I think very many of you can also testify to a clear sense of the presence of Jesus in your lives, in good times and in bad.

The Great Commission is the end of a Gospel, a kind of farewell from the incarnate Jesus, but it is also meant to be the beginning of faith in action for all Christians. The fulfillment of these last words of Matthew’s Gospel can be found in the lives of missionaries who have gone to every corner of the earth to baptize and teach; and hopefully they will also be fulfilled in our own lives (these days the mission fields can be very close to home). The places and people who need to hear the Good News of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord are everywhere!