The Gospel in today’s Mass is the very last paragraph of Matthew’s gospel and the episode takes place on a mountain. Biblical mountains are special places of revelation of God – the episode at the burning bush (Ex 3:1), the giving of the ten commandments on Mount Sinai, (Ex 19 :20), and the transfiguration (Matt 17:1-8) all took place on Mountains. So we should expect to hear something extraordinary about God in this reading.
We are told in today’s Gospel that, when the disciples saw Jesus, ‘they bowed down, but some hesitated.’ They were all given the great commission to ‘go and make disciples of all the nations…’ Even the ones who hesitated were given this charge. It is consoling to know that Jesus calls all of us to be his disciples, even those of us who are not sure or are uncertain or have doubts.
Jesus also gives the reassuring promise that, ‘I am with you always’. This pledge is given three times in Matthew’s gospel: In the very first chapter, the infancy narrative speaks of the Jesus ‘…they shall call him Emmanuel which means “God is with us”’ (Matt 1:23). Half way through the gospel, we are told, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them’ (Matt 18:20) and here, in the very last words of the gospel, Jesus says, ‘Know that I am with you; yes, to the end of time.’ (Matt 28:20).
However we understand the mystery of Trinity, we know that God is with us and that is reassuringly enough.