by Andrew Koslosky KGCHS, Contributing Writer
Jesus’ final command to his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19–20), stands at the very heart of our Christian mission.
For Catholics, this Great Commission is not a private option for a few enthusiastic believers, but rather, it is part of our Church’s very identity. Catholic teaching describes evangelization as essential to the life of the Church, not as an optional activity. The challenge today, however, is that many Catholics struggle to live this mission with confidence, clarity, and consistency.
Some feel unprepared to speak about their faith. Others fear rejection in a secular culture. Still others assume that evangelization belongs mainly to bishops, priests, religious, or professional ministers. The result is a gap between Christ’s command and everyday Catholic practice. Understanding that gap requires looking honestly at the spiritual, cultural, institutional, and personal obstacles that make the Great Commission so difficult to follow today.
We, as a people of Jesus, understand what the Great Commission is and what it calls us to. The Great Commission is viewed across Christianity as an ongoing call for all to share the “Good News, the story of salvation,” and to guide others in their faith journey. It certainly includes the proclamation of all that is Jesus Christ, the invitation to conversion, and the sacramental life.
But it also includes us to be witnesses through charity, justice, holiness, and service. Evangelization is spread both by word and deed.
We as a Church evangelize when we preach the Gospel, form disciples, celebrate the sacraments, serve the poor, and send believers into the world as witnesses. It is essential to understand that every baptized person shares this mission.
Evangelization is not reserved to the clergy. The laity are uniquely called to bring Jesus Christ into families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, politics, and culture. Yet, this beautiful vision often collides with practical reality. Many Catholics accept the Church’s teaching in theory while finding it difficult to embody in daily life.
One of the most obvious challenges a Catholic faces, is the shifting of society values, institutions, and daily life away from religious roots.
In many parts of the modern world, religion is treated as a private preference rather than a public truth. Faith is tolerated as long as it remains quiet, non-demanding, and disconnected from moral claims. This creates a difficult environment for we who want to speak openly about Jesus Christ.
Many worry that evangelization will be perceived as judgmental, intolerant, or intrusive. In workplaces, schools, and even among family and friends, believers may feel pressure to keep faith hidden to avoid conflict. The rise of religious indifference can be more challenging than outright hostility, because this indifference makes the Gospel seem irrelevant.
When people no longer ask questions about God, salvation, sin, or eternal life, evangelization becomes harder. So, the big challenge is that we must not only share the answers but must first awaken an interest in the question.
A second major obstacle is inadequate formation. Many Catholics have received sacramental preparation but not a deep discipleship. They may know some prayers, basic moral rules, or scattered Bible stories, and even attend church once a week, yet still feel unable to explain what the Church teaches or why it matters.
When faith formation remains shallow, evangelization can feel intimidating. A Catholic who is unsure how to explain the Eucharist, the role of grace, or the meaning of salvation, will often stay silent rather than risk saying something incorrect. This lack of confidence is intensified by the complexity of today’s questions.
Many of us are asked about suffering, sexuality, science, authority, abuse, hypocrisy, and other difficult topics.
Many of us believers feel outmatched. People may still love the Church while feeling unequipped to speak for her. A Church that wants missionary disciples must therefore invest much more seriously in lifelong formation, not only childhood instruction.
In recent years, the Church has taken a deep dive in child, adult and family faith formation. We are seeing great movement in that area, particularly since the National Eucharistic Congress and Pilgrimage, a few years ago..
Further to the challenges, even well-formed Catholics can hesitate to evangelize because of fear. Sharing the Gospel involves vulnerability. It requires a person to risk misunderstanding, ridicule, awkwardness, or strained relationships.
In many social settings, people have been taught that religion should never be discussed because it is “too personal” or “too divisive.”
How many times have you heard at gatherings, Religion and Politics are not to be discussed at the dinner table.
As a result, Catholics may reduce faith to private devotion and never move toward invitation, testimony, or accompaniment. It is easier to practice religion quietly than to engage in outreach. Parish life can unintentionally reinforce this when it focuses almost exclusively on serving those already present. Catholics may become consumers of religious services rather than participants in the apostolic mission.
The Great Commission, however, always sends us as disciples outward. It asks us to not merely preserve our own faith but to share Jesus with others.
Of course, we as Catholics also face the painful burden of evangelizing in the shadow of scandal. The sexual abuse crisis, failures of leadership, financial misconduct, and other forms of corruption have deeply damaged the Church’s public credibility.
For many people, the first association with Catholicism is not holiness or service but institutional failure. As faithful Catholics, who had no role in these things, yet we still bear the consequences when trying to share the Gospel.
I personally have encountered anger, suspicion, or immediate dismissal. This challenge cannot be solved by public relations alone. It requires repentance, accountability, justice, and transparent reform. When the Church’s members, especially its leaders, contradict the Gospel by their actions, we as a church are weakened.
Everyday hypocrisy also harms mission. When Catholics proclaim mercy but behave harshly, defend positions without charity, or participate in the same moral confusion as the present culture we live in, our witness to God loses conviction and power.
The Great Commission can only be followed when we as the messengers are continually connected.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a persistent misunderstanding of who is responsible for this mission. In some Catholic settings, evangelization is still unconsciously viewed as the job of priests, deacons, religious, or trained staff. Laypeople may support the Church financially, attend Mass, or volunteer in parish programs, while taking the approach that the direct mission belongs to others.
When lay Catholics do not see themselves as missionary disciples, the Church loses her presence in the very places where the Gospel is needed most. Families, offices, media, civic life, and informal friendships are all fields of mission. The challenge is not to diminish the role of clergy, but to recover the Church’s fuller vision of co-responsibility.
A missionary Church needs priests who equip and encourage, and a laity who understand that they are sent into the world as ambassadors of Christ. We today also struggle with internal polarization. In many places, we are divided by politics, liturgical preferences, generational conflicts, cultural tensions, and competing visions of Church life. These divisions also weaken the Church’s public witness.
Jesus prayed that his followers would be one so that the world might believe. When Catholics are marked by bitterness, suspicion, and division, the credibility of our message suffers. Evangelization requires clarity and conviction, but it also requires charity and communion. In the words of Pope Benedict, “A divided Church still possesses the truth of Christ, but her capacity to radiate that truth persuasively is diminished when unity is wounded.”
At its deepest level, following the Great Commission is difficult because it demands holiness. Saint Pope John Paul II preached, “Catholics cannot authentically invite others to follow Jesus while refusing his call in their own lives. Evangelization is not merely a matter of mastering arguments or techniques; it flows from communion with Christ. This means prayer, repentance, sacramental life, charity, chastity, forgiveness, and perseverance in virtue.”
Our modern culture often promotes a version of freedom detached from the truth, sacrifice, or obedience. We are all affected by this atmosphere and thus struggle to live Christian lives in the areas of family life, morality, honesty, stewardship, and concern for the poor.
The power of evangelization depends heavily on our conviction and transformation. The saints remain the Church’s greatest evangelists precisely because their lives made the Gospel believable.
The challenge for us ordinary Catholics is to accept that holiness comes at a cost. It involves daily prayer, not occasional religious enthusiasm. It requires facing all challenges to the truth. It is essential to remember that despite these challenges, the Great Commission remains possible because it is rooted in Christ’s promise of, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We, as Catholics, can respond more faithfully by getting back to the basics.
- First, parishes must prioritize missionary formation, especially adult catechesis that forms believers in Scripture, doctrine, prayer, and practical witness.
- Second, Catholics need a renewed confidence that evangelization begins with ordinary relationships, family conversations, acts of charity, invitations to Mass, patient listening, and our own personal testimony.
- Third, Church leaders must continue the hard work of accountability and healing, so that the Gospel is not obscured by scandal.
- Fourth, the laity should be equipped and commissioned for mission in the world, not treated as spectators of parish life.
- Fifth, Catholics must cultivate unity that is rooted in truth and charity rather than ideological combat and division.
- Finally, every strategy must remain grounded in holiness. Only a Church deeply united to Jesus can produce lasting fruit. Yes, indeed, the challenges we face following the Great Commission are real and serious. Society’s turn toward the separation of church and state, along with the removal of religious teachings from public education and civil law present major challenges.
In our own communities, poor formation, fear, scandal, clericalism, division, distraction, and the demanding call to holiness, are yet additional challenges that must be overcome. Yet, none of these difficulties cancels Jesus Christ’s command. In every age the Church has faced obstacles, and in every age the Holy Spirit has raised up witnesses who proclaim the Gospel with fresh courage. The central question is not whether the mission is difficult, as we were never told it would be easy. Rather, the central question is whether we will accept our command from Jesus to be a missionary people.
The Great Commission is still the Church’s primary mission because it is still Christ’s mission. We as Catholics follow it imperfectly, often hesitantly, but always with the hope that the Holy Spirit will give us what we need to go out and tell the story.
It is time that we take the time to close our eyes sometime during this upcoming week and listen…listen for what we are being guided to act on by the Holy Spirit. Pray for the strength, knowledge and courage to move forward in life and to lead by your deeds words and example. Let us become a community of missionary people.
Why don’t we as a community take this coming week to invite one person to join us at Sunday mass. If you have been missing from mass, why not join me this Sunday at Holy Family Church at the 830am or 11am mass. Let us all pray to God that he open our eyes, ears and heart up so that we may more easily see, hear and feel, more clearly, what He would like us to do with the gifts He gave us. Peace my Brothers and Sisters, until next week…
