Scholars refer to the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel as “the great commission.” As Jesus ascends to heaven he tells the disciples to “make disciples,” to baptize, and “to teach them all I have commanded you.” Those tasks have guided the ministry of the Church ever since. A famous missiologist, Tony Gittens, suggests that we can also use the Mission Statement of Jesus found in the quote from Isaiah in St. Luke’s gospel to serve as a mission statement for the Church: to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. Taking this as our commission as Church shifts our focus off ourselves and onto those in need.
