3–4 May 2025
Easter 3: The Resurrected Lord’s Appearances, the Re-Creation of the World, and the Forgiveness of Sins
 
Throughout each Sunday of the Easter Season, the Church’s Lectionary Readings present for us an appearance of the Resurrected Lord Jesus to his disciples. Last week (the Second Sunday of Easter), Jesus appeared in the Upper Room both on the First Day of his Resurrection as well as the Eighth Day of his Resurrection (John 20:19-31). The First Day of his Resurrection is meant to note that the entire Created Order has been made anew – as Jesus, the Word of God – being with the Father at the world’s creation. “In him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16). In Christ’s Resurrection, he who assisted in the Creation of the World now re-makes it according to the Plan of the Father from the Foundation of the World, indeed a “mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed.” (Colossians 1:26).
 
This is underscored by Christ’s appearing again in the upper room on the Eighth Day, where Jesus breathed upon the disciples gathered in the upper room, giving them the Holy Spirit. This echoes the first moments of creation in Genesis, where over the chaos of the waters was the rushing wind that came from God. “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) On this Eighth Day, the Lord’s breathing gift of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles clearly indicates also that the apostles have “the power to bind and to loose” sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23) Certainly, our sins are forgiven initially and principally in the Baptism that we received. But for any sins following our Baptism, the Lord in this moment clearly gave to the Church the ability to determine the form by which sins would be forgiven, which in the current era of the Church is the Confession and Forgiveness of Sins as given in the Order of Penance.
 
Indeed, the way in which the Church absolves sinners in this order recalls the great mystery of Re-Creation, Redemption, and the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church in order that sins might be forgiven.
 
God, the Father of mercies,
through the Death and Resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.
 
(en español)
Dios, Padre misericordioso, 
que reconcilió consigo al mundo 
por la muerte y la resurrección de su Hijo 
y derramó el Espíritu Santo para la remisión de los pecados.
 
May our Easter Joy continue as we celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection from the Dead, whereby Death itself is destroyed, and our sins are forgiven!
 
Fr. Earthman