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11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, "Tell people, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
Go therefore: Christ's commission to evangelize and catechize the world fulfills God's covenant oath to Abraham that "all the nations" would be blessed (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:8). His outline for the Church's mission is threefold:
(1) Evangelizing all nations involves more than winning individuals; it entails the conversion of entire cultures. Every area of life must be brought under the Lordship of Christ and in line with the gospel.
(2) The administration of the sacraments is essential to the Church's mission and our response. Baptizing new converts is the first step in a long process of sanctification and participation in the life of the Church.
(3) The transmission of all that Christ taught necessitates the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church to proclaim the gospel infallibly (cf. Jn 14:26).
The Sacrament of Baptism incorporates Christians into the divine family of the Trinity as children of God (cf. Gal 3:26, 27). The single name of the Father, Son, and Spirit reveals the unity of God's inner life and the oneness of his nature. This expression has become the normative baptismal formula for the Church (CCC 849, 1122,1257).
Good Friday – The Cross
by Fr. Robert Barron
The cross was meant to terrify people. If you ran afoul of the Roman state, they would fix you to this terrible instrument of torture, allow you to hang there until you died, and then leave your body for the beasts of the field. It was meant to be agonizingly painful, humiliating, and dehumanizing.
The cross came to symbolize all of the dark power that the world could muster: violence, oppression, injustice, and indifference to suffering. It was, in a word, state-sponsored terrorism and it was the key to the power of Rome. So terrible was the cross that people in polite society wouldn’t speak of it. For the first nine centuries of the Church’s life, Jesus’ cross wouldn’t be depicted.
It is so important theologically to note that Jesus allows all of this to wash over him. He submits to the totality of it, accepting as Paul says, “even death, death on a cross.” The world had thrown its worst at Jesus, spending itself on him, but he, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was more powerful. And this is why they proclaimed him as King and Lord and Messiah.
In an absolutely delicious bit of irony, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, places over the cross, the declaration, in the three major languages of the time, that Jesus is the King, effectively de-throning Caesar and becoming, despite himself, the first great evangelist.
And so we today hold up the cross of Jesus Christ, which was meant to affirm the powers of the world, the powers of sin and death, as a challenge to those powers.
It’s our declaration that death and violence do not have the last word. Jesus does.