Sent and Accompanied
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
Matthew 28:18–20
“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.'”
Grace Prayed For
Lord, grant me the courage to go where you send me, the humility to carry your Word and not my own, and the quiet confidence of knowing you walk with me to the very end.
Reflection
There is a strange movement in these verses. Jesus begins not with a command, but with a claim: all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Before the disciples are asked to do anything, they are asked to stand before this truth — that the Risen One holds all things, that nothing lies outside the reach of his authority, that the cosmos itself is held in his hands. Why does Matthew tell us this first?
Because the “therefore” that follows is only bearable in its light. Go, therefore. The mission flows not from our competence or cleverness, but from who Jesus is. We are not sent into the world carrying our own authority. We go as messengers of his. This is an invitation to lay down the exhausting burden of self-reliance — to discover that what we bring to the world is not ourselves, but him.
The scope of the sending is breathtaking: all nations. No corner of the human family is excluded. No culture, no tongue, no wounded corner of history falls outside the radius of this love. The Church is not a community that turns inward to protect itself; it is a people perpetually commissioned outward, toward the stranger, the distant, the forgotten. To be baptized is to have inherited a vocation — not a privilege to be guarded, but a sending to be embraced.
And yet the deepest gift of this passage may be its final line. After the command comes the promise: I am with you always, until the end of the age. Jesus does not send and then recede. He goes with. Every mile walked in his name, every word spoken, every act of mercy offered — none of it is done alone. The one who holds all authority is also the one who holds our hand in the dark. He is Immanuel still, God-with-us, now not in a manger but in the midst of the mission.
Perhaps what we most need to hear today is not the command, but the companionship. We are sent, yes — but we are never sent alone. Let that be enough to take the next step.
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “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.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post