On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20:19-23
A fitting reading for Pentecost Sunday.
It is curious that the risen Jesus still has the wounds He sustained during the Crucifixion. Baffling as it may be at first, it becomes clearer why this would be the case when we take into account what happens in this passage. Jesus bestows the Holy Spirit on the disciples in the upper room to authoritatively and effectively forgive sins. As a Catholic, I believe that this authority to forgive sins is exercised in the Sacrament of Confession. The Apostles received this authority from Jesus and it has since been passed down to their successors (the bishops) and those successors’ collaborators (the priests). Jesus shows them the nail marks in His hands and the lance wound on His side before He confers the Spirit. In doing so, Jesus demonstrates that His unfathomable and inexhaustible mercy, which was displayed on the Cross when He suffered and died for the forgiveness of sins, is the same mercy that will be exercised through the missionary ministry of the Apostles that would take place after Pentecost.
What a wonderful gift we have in Confession.
Thank you for reading. Peace.
Eat the Scroll 