Matthew 28:16-20
The Trinity and Mission
by Rev. Steven G. Oetjen
Reprinted by Permission of "The Arlington Catholic Herald"
 

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Matthew wrote to show that Christ was the
Messiah and fulfilled the Jewish prophecies.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.  When they all 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."

"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."

In the Gospel or today's Mass, Jesus sends his disciples forth and gives them the Trinitarian baptismal formula.  Their mission is to make disciples, and through baptism these new disciples will be invited into the life of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  With his beautiful reality in mind, let us consider today the connection between the Most Holy Trinity and mission.

Mission is the action of sending.  Whenever there is a mission, there is someone sending, someone being sent, and a specific purpose for the sending.

Mission is also something that begins with the Blessed Trinity.  Before Jesus sent his disciples to the ends of the earth, Jesus was first sent into the world from the Father.  Jesus refers to this often in the Gospels: not only is he the Son of the Father; he is also the one sent from the Father into the world.  This truth is expressed powerfully in an encounter Jesus has with some of the people of Jerusalem during the feast of Booths.  They are wondering whether he might really be the Christ, but they hesitate, saying, "Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?  Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from." (Jn 7:26-27)  Jesus responds, "You know me, and you know where I come from?  But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know.  I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me." (Jn7:28-29)  It is not just that he was born in Bethlehem, or that he is from Nazareth.  There's a more important "place" from which he comes, or rather, a person from whom he comes: the Father.

The Incarnation, then, is the "visible mission" of the Son into the world.  But Jesus is also sent by the Father invisibly.  His "invisible mission" refers to the way in which he comes to dwell in the hearts of believers.  At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (Jn 14:23) The Father sent the Son into the world visibly, and he also sends him to abide in souls invisibly.

The Holy Spirit is also sent in a similar way.  In his case, it is the Father and the Son who together send the Holy Spirit.  Jesus described this in many ways at the Last Supper.  For example, he said, "But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father; even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me." (Jn 15:26)  This is one of the reasons why he ascended into heaven, in fact.  He ascended to sit at the Father's right hand so that, from the Father's right hand, the Son would send the Spirit: "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (Jn 16:7)  Now, because of the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit, we can say with St. Paul that "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." (Rom 5:5)

Notice how the pattern of these divine missions follows the same pattern as the eternal processions of the persons of the Trinity. Just as the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, so the Father sends the Son into the world in time. And just as the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, so the Father and Son together send the Holy Spirit into the world. The divine missions happen in time, but they reflect the processions of the divine persons in eternity.

This is where mission begins.  The Son and the Spirit have been sent into the world to accomplish to Father's purpose - to fill us with holy wisdom and supernatural love of God.  Now, when you hear the great commission on this Trinity Sunday, understand the profound weight of the mission that has been entrusted to you as a disciple of Christ.