Scott Hahn with David Scott
The prophet Daniel in a vision saw “One like the Son of Man” receive everlasting kingship (see Daniel 7:9-14). John is taken to heaven in today’s Second Reading where He sees Daniel’s prophecy fulfilled in Jesus, who appears as “One like a Son of Man.” Jesus is clad in the robe of a High Priest (see Exodus 28:4; Wisdom 18:24) and wearing the gold sash of a King (see 1 Maccabees 10:89). He has been exalted by the right hand of the Lord, as we sing in today’s Psalm. His risen body, which the Apostles touch in today’s Gospel, has been made a life-giving Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 15:45). As the Father anointed Him with the Spirit and power (see Acts 10:38), Jesus pours out that Spirit on the Apostles, sending them into the world “as the Father has sent Me.” Jesus “breathes” the Spirit of His divine life into the Apostles—as God blew the “breath of life” into Adam (see Genesis 2:7), as Elijah’s prayer returned “the life breath” to the dead child (see 1 Kings 17:21-23), and as the Spirit breathed new life into the slain in the valley of bones (see Ezekiel 37:9-10). His creative breath unites the Apostles—His Church—to His body, and empowers them to breathe His life into a dying world, to make it a new creation. In today’s Gospel and First Reading, we see the Apostles fulfilling this mission, with powers only God possesses—the power to forgive sins and to work “signs and wonders,” a biblical expression only used to describe the mighty works of God (see Exodus 7:3; 11:10; Acts 7:36). Thomas and the others saw “many other signs” after Jesus was raised from the dead. They saw and they believed. They have been given His life, which continues in the Church’s Word and sacraments, so that we who have not seen might inherit His blessings, and “have life in His name.”
Gregory of Narek
Book of Prayers, 33 (trad. SC 78, p. 206)
Almighty, Benefactor, Friend to humankind, God of all, and Creator of all things, visible and invisible; You who save us and affirm us, who care for us and bring us peace, Mighty Spirit of the Father… You share the same throne, the same glory, and the same creative activity as the Father… By your mediation was revealed to us the Trinity of Persons in a unity of nature in the Divinity; and you, too, are counted as one among those Persons, O incomprehensible One…
Through Moses you were proclaimed Spirit of God (Gn 1,2) as you hovered over the waters with all-embracing protectiveness, awesome, full of care. You spread your wings in sign of your compassionate presence hovering over those newly born, and by this means revealed the mystery of the waters of baptism… O Almighty One, as Lord you created all natures and everything that exists (cf. Credo), every being created by you, in the moment that is last among the days of life here below and first in the Land of the living.
He who is of the same nature as you, He, the firstborn Son, who is consubstantial with the Father, obeyed you as a Father in our nature, binding his will to yours. He made you known as true God, equal and consubstantial to his all-powerful Father… and he shut the mouths of those who resisted you for they were struggling against God (cf. Mt 12,28), whereas he forgave all who were against himself.
He is the Just One, the Pure One, the Savior of all, delivered up on account of our sins and raised for our justification (Rom 4,25). Through you all glory to him, and to you all praise, together with the all-powerful Father for endless ages. Amen.
Pope Benedict XVI
Homily, St. Peter’s Square, Rome, April 15, 2007
[I]n today’s Gospel: the Lord breathes upon his disciples. He grants them his Spirit – the Holy Spirit: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven…”.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the power of forgiveness. He is the power of Divine Mercy. He makes it possible to start all over again – ever anew. The friendship of Jesus Christ is the friendship of the One who makes us people who forgive, the One who also forgives us, raises us ceaselessly from our weakness and in this very way educates us, instils in us an awareness of the inner duty of love, of the duty to respond with our faithfulness to his trust.
In the Gospel passage for today we also heard the story of the Apostle Thomas’ encounter with the Risen Lord: the Apostle is permitted to touch his wounds and thereby recognizes him – over and above the human identity of Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas recognizes him in his true and deepest identity: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20: 28).
The Lord took his wounds with him to eternity. He is a wounded God; he let himself be injured through his love for us. His wounds are a sign for us that he understands and allows himself to be wounded out of love for us.
These wounds of his: how tangible they are to us in the history of our time! Indeed, time and again he allows himself to be wounded for our sake. What certainty of his mercy, what consolation do his wounds mean for us! And what security they give us regarding his identity: “My Lord and my God!”. And what a duty they are for us, the duty to allow ourselves in turn to be wounded for him!
God’s mercy accompanies us daily. To be able to perceive his mercy it suffices to have a heart that is alert. We are excessively inclined to notice only the daily effort that has been imposed upon us as children of Adam.
If, however, we open our hearts, then as well as immersing ourselves in them we can be constantly aware of how good God is to us; how he thinks of us precisely in little things, thus helping us to achieve important ones.
Pope Benedict XVI
Regina Caeli Address, April 15, 2007
This Sunday, as I said, concludes the week or, more properly, the “Octave” of Easter, which the liturgy considers as a single day: “the day which the Lord has made” (Ps 117[116]: 24). It is not a chronological but a spiritual time, which God opened in the sequence of days when he raised Christ from the dead.
The Creator Spirit, infusing new and eternal life in the buried body of Jesus of Nazareth, carried to completion the work of creation, giving origin to a “firstfruits”: the firstfruits of a new humanity, which at the same time is a firstfruits of a new world and a new era.
This world renewal can be summed up in a single phrase, the same one that the Risen Jesus spoke to his disciples as a greeting and even more, as an announcement of his victory: “Peace be with you!” (Lk 24: 36; Jn 20: 19, 21, 26).
Peace is the gift that Christ left his friends (cf. Jn 14: 27) as a blessing destined for all men and women and all peoples. It is not a peace according to a “worldly” mentality, as an equilibrium of forces, but a new reality, fruit of God’s Love, of his Mercy. It is the peace that Jesus Christ earned by the price of his Blood and communicates to those who trust in him.
“Jesus, I trust in you”: these words summarize the faith of the Christian, which is faith in the omnipotence of God’s merciful Love.
Dear brothers and sisters, as I renew my gratitude for your spiritual closeness on the occasion of my birthday and the anniversary of my election as Successor of Peter, I entrust all of you to Mary, Mater Misericordiae, Mother of Jesus who is the incarnation of Divine Mercy.
