Videos from Fr Claudio Doglio
Original voice in italian, with subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese & Cantonese
The New Testament begins with the Gospel according to Matthew. It is a collection of books produced by the Christian community that lived around Jesus of Nazareth over 70 years ago, and it was gathered with the Scriptures inherited from the Jewish tradition. The first book in the New Testament collection is the Gospel according to Matthew, the first of the four gospels. Since ancient times, the Gospel of Matthew has been considered the first andoldest.
The information from the Church Fathers probably did not refer to the Gospel of Matthew we have now, but to an earlier edition. It is likely that the apostolic community, in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection in the year 30, not only preached but also began to write down some of their preaching. In the first years, there was a kind of primitive, fundamental, primary gospel, with the basic schema of the apostles’ preaching in Jerusalem, announcing to the people of Israel the person of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and of all peoples.
The other gospels, the synoptics, were derived from this primordial schema: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This first text, written in a Semitic language, was probably written by Matthew the Publican, who sold himself to the Romans to become a tax collector but found Jesus, who completely changed his life. After the Master’s resurrection, Levi, now called Matthew, was probably the one who expanded this first text that the apostles produced into an official document of his preaching about Jesus.
This text was taken on a mission; it is likely that Barnabas, when he was sent to Antioch in the 40s to verify the birth of a Hellenistic community in that great city, took the Gospel of the 12 with him. In Antioch, the first version was made in Greek, with additions and adaptations. This text, which was probably brought to Antioch, was known as the Gospel according to Matthew because Matthew was the one who presented it there. In Antioch, a lively Christian community was born and, over the years, continued to develop this primary text. By the 80s, 40 years after the arrival of the text in Antioch, a community of Christian writers, whom we conventionally call the school of Saint Matthew, made the definitive edition of the Gospel that we now have in our hands and that we want to study to try to get to know it better. But we will start from the end. We do not start from the first page but from the last page because a literary work is often best understood in the light of its ending. It also happens in life, where the end illuminates the meaning of everything else.
From a literary point of view, the Gospel of Matthew ends in an open, exciting way. There is no conclusion; the story remains almost suspended, leaving the reader to imagine what happens next.
The first Gospel has 28 chapters, the longest of all. The last chapter is dedicated to encounters with the Risen One. After the episode, also found in the other Gospels, of the women’s visit to the empty tomb on Easter morning, Matthew narrates the Risen One’s encounter with women who become missionaries to the apostles. Then he describes the case of the soldiers corrupted by the Sanhedrin, who are told to lie about the empty tomb. Finally, he presents a highly symbolic episode crucial to his theology. Let’s read from verse 16: “The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.” The disciples are no longer 12, only 11. This indicates incompleteness; there is the drama of Judas’s betrayal, one of the group closest to Jesus, who betrayed him and walked away. He was responsible for the arrest of Jesus, which tragically ended his life. The eleven obey Jesus.
The invitation to return to Galilee may have symbolic rather than historical value. According to the reconstruction of the facts, the apostles remained in Jerusalem after Easter. On Pentecost, they were still there, and the mission began in the capital of Israel. However, the return to Galilee has symbolic value because Galilee is the land of the pagans. The name Galilee was not its original name but a common designation for the district, region, or province, ‘GUELIL,’ with the specification of the people, ‘GUELIL AGOYÍN’— “the Galilee of the people.” There, the preaching of Jesus began; it was a place of foreigners, where Jews also lived, but they were not the entire population; they lived alongside people of other races and religions. Galilee, the starting point of Jesus’ preaching, became the ideal place to return to.
After Easter, Jesus invites the apostles to return to Galilee, to their origins, to reflect on everything they have lived through together with the Master during his years of ministry, and to participate in ordinary life among the people, even among non-Jews. Matthew’s ending is an open one, an invitation to all people. Jesus the Messiah is not reserved for Israel but for all peoples.
In biblical symbolism, the mountain has a particular meaning—it is the earth that rises to heaven. The mountain is a symbolic place of encounter between humans and God. Humans rise to heaven, and the Lord descends to earth. On the mountain, Moses found the Lord, where the covenant was made; Moses received the law and pledged fidelity. Mountains fascinate Matthew; he mentions them in important narrative passages. We remember the discourse on the mountain, the new law, and the foundation of the new covenant well.
The entire story of Matthew ends on another mountain, one that Jesus has indicated to them. They do not go where they want but where Jesus has indicated. It is a theophany, that is, a manifestation of God. It is the definitive revelation of God in the person of the risen Jesus. “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” The evangelist places two aspects together. On the one hand, faith; on the other, hesitation. There were only eleven; it is an imperfect universality.
They prostrate themselves in adoration before Jesus. Yet they still harbor uncertainties and doubts in their hearts. “Jesus approached them…” The verb “to approach” carries a particular nuance in the Gospel of Matthew. It is a technical term in priestly language, indicating that priests approach the world of the sacred, the divine. Using this image, Matthew employs the verb to convey a heavenly approach to humans. Jesus approaches the disciples; he moves toward those prostrate, kneeling in adoration.
“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.’” We come to the end of the text, but it is not the end of the episode. We left the disciples on the mountain, kneeling before the risen Lord. After hearing these words, what happened next? Did they speak to him? Did they move? What did they do? And where did Jesus go? The evangelist Matthew says nothing about this. The Gospel ends with a significant episode on the mountain, where the risen Lord gives the disciples an operational indication. It is the Magna Carta of the Christian community in Matthew. We reread these words because they are essential.
First, Jesus makes a statement describing his person and the authority given to him. “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” All the “exusia,” the “divine potestas,” was entrusted to Jesus in heaven and on earth. It is the polar expression that, with two opposing elements, wants to indicate everything. The Risen One has been enthroned and received cosmic power. The humiliated has been glorified; God has exalted him whom they cast out. It is a ‘passive,’ technically called ‘divine passive.’ “It has been given to me…” Who gave it to Him? It is not stated explicitly, but it is clearly ‘God.’ It is a typical Semitic way of avoiding the name of God. We could say: ‘God gave him all power over the universe,’ therefore, ‘walking’ makes disciples.
We must pay attention to the importance of ‘therefore.’ It establishes a relationship and a causal link. ‘Since I have received all the power, you, my disciples, make disciples.’ Although ‘go’ is translated as an imperative, it is a participle in the original. We translate it better with a gerund: “walking” makes disciples. The imperative refers to the commitment to ‘discipling.’ This verb does not exist in English; it strains the language because, in the original Greek, there is a verb with the same root as the word ‘disciple,’ used causatively. Some old translations put ‘training.’ It is not a good translation because this verb is used for animals, mainly because it contains the idea of being a ‘teacher.’ At the same time, the original has the concept of being a disciple. Jesus’ followers don’t become teachers but continue to be disciples who make others become disciples. The recipients of this commandment of Jesus are the disciples, and the goal is that all the people in the world become disciples. So they ‘learn.’ The disciple is the one who learns.
Consequently, as they walk throughout their lives, they make disciples of all peoples. Here is the universal opening: ‘πάντα τὰ ἔθνη’ = panta ta ethné = all races in the world. It is an ethnic opening. While Israel is a unique ethnic group that considers itself isolated, the callis to all ethnic groups in the universe. All these human races are called to become disciples of the only Master, the risen Lord, who has all power in heaven and on earth.
But how do you make disciples? In two ways: baptizing and teaching. The first verb recalls the Church’s sacramental dimension, the Church’s liturgical work that, through the sacraments, communicates the grace of the risen Lord. Here we find the formula we still use today in baptism: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is a perfect Trinitarian formula that we take from the end of the Gospel of Matthew to make the sign of the cross, to celebrate baptism, and to give blessings.
To baptize means to immerse. Sacramentally immersing all peoples in the relationship among the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they enter into communion of life with the divine Persons as they are manifested in the life of Jesus. Baptizing and teaching is a didactic, formative work. It is not enough to celebrate the sacrament; it is also necessary to impart knowledge. And what should they teach? They must teach, observe, and guard everything that Jesus has commanded.
Let us note the insistence on the whole. In these few verses, the adjective ‘all’ appears in various forms. “All power has been given to me; to make disciples of all peoples; teach them to fulfill all that I have commanded; I am with you every day.” The community of disciples transmits everything that Jesus taught, not only transmitting it but also saving it and teaching how to maintain and conserve it. The last word is a promise, an affirmation of identity: “I will be with you.” The formula ‘I am’ is fundamental: it is the name of God and the revelation of that name to Moses at Sinai.
Now, Jesus presents himself as “I am” … not only that: “I am with you.” It is the revelation of God with us. What was initially announced as Emmanuel: “I am with you.” Now, Jesus, recognized as God, is in a close relationship with the Lord Adonai, the God of Israel, who revealed himself at Sinai and with the community, identifying with his group. “Every day” — continuously, in all the daily realities, in the Galilee of every day. “Until the end of the age,” or, put another way, “until the end of the world.” It is the end: the term and goal to which everything points. It is the fulfillment of historical time, of the reality of this world, which the presence of Christ has transformed.
The community of Matthew lives the experience of the risen Christ. “I will be with you always.” This communion of life opens to mission. The church is by nature missionary … toward the Galilee, the peripheries of the world, and all reality, every teaching, everything that Jesus commanded. The goal is to make disciples. Reading the Gospel of Matthew means, once again, putting ourselves in the school of Jesus, the only Teacher, to become true disciples and help others become disciples like us.