Mar

29

As the Father Sent Me

Posted By reynor | Filed Under Quotes & Excerpts 

by Fr. Jack Peterson for Catholic Exchange

Pope John Paul II dedicated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday in 2001. This day is very fitting for such a celebration because of the Church’s long standing practice of turning to the Gospel involving Jesus’ first appearance to the Apostles as a group following the resurrection.

After greeting the 10 (Judas and Thomas were missing) and twice offering the great gift of His peace, Jesus commissions them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Our Lord passed on to the Apostles the authority to oversee the Church’s mission, which was an extension of the mission that He Himself had received from the Father.

Next, Our risen Lord 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.” The first time that God breathed His Spirit into man was at creation when He gave life to Adam. The second time was this night when God gave new life to the world and to the Church by bestowing upon the Apostles the authority and power to offer God’s forgiveness.

Jesus, the eternal Word present at the creation of the world, came down to earth to re-create it through the gift of His mercy and the reconciliation with God Our Father that flows from His mercy. The Church, in a unique way through her ministerial priesthood, shares in this great work of healing and reconciling the world.  Continue reading here…

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