Forgiveness of sins as a Resurrection from spiritual death

Second Sunday of Easter (C)

Divine Mercy Sunday

Today on this Octave Day of Easter we are taken to the upper room on Easter Sunday when the risen Lord appeared to his disciples and then one week later for a second appearance where the focus is on the doubts and unbelief of Thomas. 

St John gives us some important details. For instance, he mentions that the doors were closed when Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst. To affirm his identity he shows them the wounds in his hands and the distinctive additional wound in his side, the mark of the spear. There can be no doubt that it is the crucified Jesus who now stands before them.

He gives them the reassuring greeting: “Peace be with you”. Following all that they had been through, their fears and confusion, these words must have been reassuring and calming. Peace would have settled upon their troubled spirits. It was a peace that touched their spirits, as Jesus had previously said, a peace that the world just cannot give.

Next, he moves to his future purpose for them. They are not just to personally blessed by this appearance, but they are to announce the Resurrection to the world. They have a mission, a great task. Jesus says to them: “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you”. This was always his intention. They were to become the witnesses to and proclaimers of the risen Christ.

Then, St John, notes that he “breathed on them”. An unusual gesture, but one full of meaning. A meaning that is revealed in the words that follow. Jesus says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit is the breath of God, ‘Ruah’ in Aramaic. At that moment he endows them with the Holy Spirit.

He then gives them a special sacramental power – the power to forgive sins. We can remember that when Jesus himself exercised this power, he disturbed the Jewish religious leaders who accused him of blasphemy and quickly and correctly said, “Only God can forgive sins”. (see Mk 2:7) Indeed, only God can forgive sins.

Here at this extraordinary moment when the risen Lord appears to them for the first time, he entrusts this power to the Apostles: “For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven”. That this was what was uppermost in the mind of Jesus at the manifestation of his risen glory to his apostles, reminds us that this, above all, is what he wants his Church to offer to humanity – the forgiveness of sins.

In striking fashion we are reminded that Jesus died so that we could be reconciled with God. And the forgiveness of sins is the means by which this reconciliation is achieved.

We may take lightly our need to seek forgiveness for our sins. We may not see the need to go to confession. But Jesus sees it in a totally different way. It is the reason he went to Calvary.

Today has been declared by the Church as Divine Mercy Sunday. This is in response to a specific request by the Lord in his appearances to Sr Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s in Poland.

In her diary she records no less than 14 occasions when Jesus requested that a Feast of Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday) be observed.

On one occasion the Lord said to her:

My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me. … It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy. (Diary 699)

The Lord specifically asks people who observe this feast to go to confession. This confirms the Gospel account we read today – the Lord gave authority to the Apostles to forgive sins. Such forgiveness is a direct outcome from his passion, death and resurrection. The Lord’s request to St Faustina continues what he said to his Apostles on Easter evening.

Pope St John Paul II, in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Sacrament of Penance, says.

God is always the one who is principally offended by sin — Tibi soli peccavi – and God alone can forgive. Hence the absolution that the priest, the minister of forgiveness, though himself a sinner, grants to the penitent is the effective sign of the intervention of the Father in every absolution and the sign of the “resurrection” from “spiritual death” which is renewed each time that the sacrament of penance is administered. (Reconciliatio et Paenitentia)

Forgiveness of sins through the words of absolution by the priest becomes, as St John Paul II says, a moment of resurrection from our personal spiritual death. It is the way the Paschal Mystery directly touches our lives.

Today on this Divine Mercy Sunday let us resolve to seek the forgiveness of our sins in the great Sacrament of Mercy.

Archbishop Julian Porteous