BREATHE MY SPIRIT INTO THE WORLD

“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.’”  John 20:19

Despite the locked doors, despite the fact that they were hiding all the while that He, their friend and master, was on trial and crucified, He appeared in their midst.
Do you think that, at that moment of His appearance, their fear of the Jews was replaced by humiliation for abandoning Him? Or did it change to fear of His reaction to their failings, not to mention their overwhelming feelings of disbelief? And yet, Jesus shows only love and mercy.  “Peace be with you.”

And what about us, who have on occasion abandoned Him, doubted His Resurrection, love and mercy?  So many of us, millennia later, are locked in “upper room” of our own making, aching with remorse for our moments of disbelief in Him and His Resurrection, in a never-ending stream of second chances. Jesus once again today appears in our midst at Mass this weekend and says to us, “Peace be with you.”

And what is my response?

GOD BREATHES GOD’S MERCY INTO THE DISCIPLES

We, too, are those disciples gathered here today. Jesus continues:

“‘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.’”

How wide the abyss between our petty views and those of the mind of Christ! And yet He gives to us the task of breathing forgiveness – deep, compassionate love and merciful forgiveness – into this broken, inattentive world in which we are too comfortable.  Will you and I let ourselves “receive the Holy Spirit”?  Can we “Forgive another’s sins”?  Will we let ourselves receive forgiveness for our sins?

Sister Loretta