Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven

Second Sunday of Easter (A)

On this octave day of Easter, we are taken to the upper room where St John describes the appearance of the risen Lord to his disciples on the first Easter night and then one week later.

His greeting to his confused disciples must have been reassuring: “Peace be with you”. Then the Lord speaks about their future role:

“As the Father sent me, so am I sending you”. They are to be apostles to the world, announcing the resurrection of Christ.

Next, we are told that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

Then adding, “For those whose sins you forgive they are forgiven”. With these words Jesus grants the apostles the authority to forgive sins.

Let us take a moment to consider this. To forgive sins is the sole prerogative of God.

What is sin? It is wrong doing, yes. But it is more than that. When we consider the sin of Adam and Eve, the original sin, they did not do something particularly evil – they ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It was not eating the fruit that constituted the sin, but that they defied the instructions of God. Their sin directly affected their relationship with God.

Sin is relational. Sin has sometimes been called an offense against God. When we sin, we damage and may even destroy our personal relationship with God.  

Jesus understood his mission as restoring the relationship between God and humanity. He came to redeem humanity from its alienation with God.

He powerfully taught, in parables like the Prodigal Son, that God longs to restore relationships damaged by the wilfulness of humanity.

From the cross Jesus cried out, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. In the heart of Jesus, his Sacred Heart, was such a love for humanity that, above all, he desired that sin be forgiven.

We know from our experience that when we offend someone by our actions, we need to restore the relationship and the way to achieve this is to ask for forgiveness. And the relationship is healed when forgiveness is granted.

When we reflect on the Gospel given to us today we can sense that Jesus, now as risen Lord, wanted the redemption of humanity won by his death on the cross to be communicated to the whole world via the ministry of his apostles.

He desired not only that the message of forgiveness be conveyed but that people had a means to make this forgiveness effective in their lives.

God alone can forgive, but now this forgiveness can be mediated through his Church. Forgiveness remains the prerogative of God, but it has a sacramental expression.

First, the Church has always understood that the Sacrament of Baptism washes away all sin. The person to be baptised declares their intent to reject Satan and the lure of sin.

They choose to live in Christ and belong totally to God. In the grace of the sacrament all previous sin is remitted.

Second, we have a sacrament, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by which we can seek forgiveness for sins committed after Baptism.

It is called the Sacrament of Reconciliation because this is what it achieves: a reconciliation, a restoring of relationship, takes place between the penitent and the All Holy God.

When we come from the confessional we are not only washed clean of our sins but we know that we are once more aright with God. We can sense that God has embraced us and drawn us back into personal union with him.

Thus, the Church mediates the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ. This is a direct and immediate fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In the light of this, we can understand why the Lord, in appearing to St Faustina, asked that the Sunday after Easter should be designated Divine Mercy Sunday, and that on that day people should approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Firstly, it becomes a concrete realisation of what was proclaimed in the Gospel: “whose sins you forgive they are forgiven”.

Secondly, as the Lord declared, it is to be a day in which the floodgates of mercy are opened upon humanity. The fruits of the redemption of humanity, celebrated at Easter, are lavishly released upon all who seek them.

We can gaze upon the image of Divine Mercy and focus on the rays of light flowing from the heart of the risen Christ. They are the healing rays of mercy.

Jesus, our risen Lord, desires that we share in the grace of salvation. We can do this by approaching him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The Gospel ended today with St John declaring that what he has recorded is so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name”.

My brothers and sisters, we believe that Jesus is the Christ. We believe that he offers us a means by which our sins are forgiven.

Turning to the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the means by which not only are our sins forgiven, but we know that our relationship with God is restored and renewed.

We walk out of the confessional in the simple yet profound knowledge that God the Father looks upon us with great love and sees us as his beloved son or daughter, in whom he is well pleased.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Sunday, 16 April 2023