What Does the Great Commission Mean for Me?

Rachel Watkins wonders about the place our life at home has in the call to go out to the whole world.

A few years ago, after the Feast of the Ascension, my teens were laughing about the angels’ inquiry to the apostles,

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

They were relating it to the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off of all things! After the credits are done, Matthew Broderick appears in a bathrobe to admonish the lingering audience, "You're still here? It's over. Go home. Go."

From the Acts of the Apostles, after the Great Commission, we know the apostles did descend the mountain and, together with the Blessed Mother and others, waited in the Upper Room for the Holy Spirit as promised:

He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak.” (Acts 1:4)

And then? Tradition holds that all of the apostles except John, living his solitary life on Patmos, were martyred.

What Good Can I Do from Home?

This all came to my mind this past Ascension when I left Mass with the question of how these apostles did it. Jesus was asking them to do something huge without them knowing how it would end. God was relying on them, and they were relying on God.

Does any of this matter for my day? While the risk of martyrdom is very low in my life, God is also relying on me to a degree to fulfill this same commission. He is also watching over me, expecting me to do what I can to be His witness.

But what is a mom to do? Are we somehow letting God down if we aren’t off like the apostles transforming the world? Oh, but we are transforming the world!

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Our world consists of our family, including extended family. Every friend we meet at a playground or school. Every stranger at the grocery store or on the internet or telephone. The world of a parent, even one who "only stays at home" is actually huge in its impact on those nearest and dearest to us and those who we will never meet in real life.

Refocusing our hearts and minds towards realizing that all we do is, in some way, a reflection of Jesus and, in turn, His love for us, helps us to realize we are a part of the apostle’s first evangelization efforts. After all, we are joined to our spouse by a sacrament, one of the seven Jesus Himself instituted (his first public miracle no less at a wedding)! The way we present ourselves to others may inspire them to consider marriage in the first place, or even try to improve their own. Bath time with our kids is just foot washing all over, just as Peter asked. Never diminish what we do as spouses, parents, siblings, friends, and saints-in-the-making as meaningless.

Making the Seemingly Unimportant Very Important

During a rather rough time in my housekeeping days, I couldn’t rally myself to do more than the bare minimum. I felt weighed down with babies, homeschooling, and all the rest. In what I can only call an inspiration from the Holy Spirit, I sat down and listed every single task I accomplished during a typical day and assigned it a purpose. I would do the dishes for my children’s future vocations. I cooked each meal offering a prayer for every unknown mother whose poverty or situation prevented her from doing the same. Bathrooms were scrubbed and cleaned for those caught up in fleshly sin. I decided that if I had to do these chores I disliked so much, I was going to make them mean something more than just a clean house.

Over time, the intentions changed, and this habit helped me try to offer an intention before everything I do. More recently, my parish was given an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales as its pastor. During one homily, Father Jim taught us the prayer of his founder instructed they should say before every action:

My God, I offer you this action. I give you all the good that I may do. I promise for love of you to accept the challenges I may face. Help me conduct myself in a manner pleasing to you.

This is how we evangelize the world, starting within the four walls we live in: doing all we do for Him.

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