And in the New Testament there are other mountains and hills: Jesus is Transfigured on Mount Tabor, he gives his most important teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and gives his life for us on the Hill of Calvary.

So what we are dealing with here is a moment of great significance, an occasion of special revelation. And it is no mistake that it takes place in Galilee as if to remind the Apostles that, while many important events took place in Jerusalem, Jesus conducted most of his public ministry in Galilee. Indeed that was where it was inaugurated and now in this great event where it comes to its final conclusion.

The Apostles are given three tasks: 1) to make disciples of all the nations 2) to Baptise them in the name of the Holy Trinity and 3) to teach these new disciples to observe the commands of Jesus.

To become a disciple is the natural response to any extended encounter with Jesus. It is the task of the Apostles to bring people into contact with him, to enable those they meet to get to know the Lord.

This is our task too. When we meet others it should be as if they are meeting Jesus. Now I know quite well that we are none of us up to Jesus' standards. We are much more tetchy, much more irritable and not really as kind as we ought to be.

If you were to meet me on a Monday morning then it would be as far from an encounter with Jesus as you could possibly get! But, whether we are any good at it or not, that ought to be our aim.

We don't need to go into long complicated explanations as to who Jesus is; just as long as the people we meet know that we are one of his disciples then that should be enough. From our behaviour they will be easily able to deduce quite a lot about Jesus.

We might feel rather inadequate and be afraid to give the wrong impression and think that what we say and do isn't in line with what Jesus would want. But this is to underestimate the sophistication of other people; they are quite easily able to assess whether a person is sincere or not and they know immediately what your true intentions are.

That's the task of making disciples; it's a big undertaking but get used to it because it is our primary role as Christians. The other two objects of the mission given by Jesus were to Baptise and to teach. Baptism is the key to membership in the Church and teaching is one of the most important activities in the Church. Its what we are doing now.

These both follow on from making disciples, from introducing people to Jesus. And in a sense they are much easier because, as I said, once people get to know Jesus the natural response is to follow him, seek Baptism and wish to know more about him.

You might be wondering if I'm preaching the right sort of sermon for this Sunday dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Well I think I am! We noted that this text given for today was the clearest reference to the Trinity in the scriptures and if you look it up you will find that the scholars mostly say that this phrase must have been a Baptismal formula that Matthew has inserted into the text.

Jesus didn't explicitly teach us about the Trinity. The theology of the Trinity comes out of the reflection of the early Church on the teaching of Jesus. They thought over what he said and under the influence of the Holy Spirit they began to understand the dynamics of the Trinity.

Jesus referred on many occasions to his Father and the closeness of his relationship with him. Moreover he taught us to speak to the Father in a very familiar and direct way.

Jesus also promises to send us his Spirit and refers even in this particular passage that he will be with us always, until the end of time. We understand that it is precisely through the Holy Spirit that Jesus is present to us.

What we have here are examples of the other two tasks given to the Apostles namely Baptising and teaching. By weaving into his text a Baptismal formula we realise that Baptism was one of the most important activities of the early Church.

And the very succinct formula that they used is a direct result of their refection on the things that Jesus had told them during his public ministry. This is the teaching role of the Apostles; like any good teacher they had first to reflect on what it actually is that they are to communicate and explain to others.

This final passage of Matthew's Gospel is sometimes regarded as a brief summary of the whole Gospel. It certainly is a very succinct summary of the role of a true disciple of Christ and gives us a plan for the rest of our lives.

But it also contains a promise; a promise that Christ will be with us till the end of time. This is one of the great promises of God recorded in the Bible. He will not abandon us, he will always be with us guiding us and guarding us from the evil one through the power of his Holy Spirit. And in time we will be taken up into him to share the life of love that is the Trinity.