Go, Make Disciples of All Nations

May 17, 2026

Forty days after rising from the dead on Easter Sunday, Jesus returned to the right hand of God the Father, taking His seat as Lord of the Universe. We can visualize His earthly mission by imagining a downward arc, beginning with His descent from Heaven to His birth in Bethlehem, traveling rightward representing His earthly life and ministry, His Passion and Death, and then, moving upward beginning with His Resurrection and the 40 days of His risen life, and finally returning to Heaven on Ascension Thursday.
   
He has completed His time on earth and is now in Heaven. We recall that Jesus ascended as both human and divine. He remains both human and divine for all eternity. Mary, too, will be assumed both body and soul, so there are two human beings in Heaven who have completed their earthly life.
   
St. Paul has taught us that we are the Body of Christ and that Jesus is Himself the head. Where the head has gone, the body will follow. United with Christ, His ascension is our ascension.
   
Immediately before His ascension, Jesus gathered with His Apostles on a mountain in Galilee. He spoke to them the words that have come to be known as the Great Commission. “Go, 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 carry out all that I have commanded you, and know that I am with you until the end of the age.” They then saw Him lifted up into a cloud, which carried Him away.
   
At His ascension, He gave the Church its marching orders, its mission statement. The purpose of the Church, and its primary mission is to “go!” We are a missionary Church. When He called His first disciples, He told them they would become fishers of men. Fishermen go out, seeking the fish that they will catch. In the same way, the Church goes out to locate those Christ is calling to Himself. This is the task of every Christian and, in particular, of every Catholic. This is the meaning of the words of dismissal at the end of the Mass. “The Mass is ended. Go in peace.”

“Make disciples of all nations.” Jesus’ entire ministry took place in Israel and was directed to the Jewish people.

He told the disciples, when He first sent them forth on mission, that they were to "seek out only the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6). Later, there were Gentiles who came to Jesus. But in the Great Commission, they were sent to the whole world. Very quickly, the Church’s mission would be primarily to the Gentiles.
   
“Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Membership in the Jewish community was accomplished through circumcision. For Christians, membership was through the sacrament of baptism. Baptism is known as the sacrament of salvation, because by baptism, we are forgiven from all sin, united to God in Christ Jesus, and made officially members of the Church.    
   
He also told the Apostles to teach all His followers to carry out all that He had commanded. Jesus’ plan for His disciples is that they would live a fully Christian life, according to His commandments to love God and to love one another.
—Fr. Mike Comer