June 8, 2025.
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “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)
Pentecost, the solemn liturgy in which we celebrate the coming of the Holy Ghost to the Virgin Mary and the Apostles, should help us remember the origins of the Church. In Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus changed from a group full of fear to become a community full of life and determined to give their life for Christ. And all of this thanks to the strength of God, received through the Holy Ghost. To that first group of disciples, this change implied, in effect, persecution, torture and martyrdom. In this way it became manifest what induced them was not a type of mundane business – search for money or power – but the certainty that they had seen Christ resuscitated.
But to give one’s life for the Lord is a question bound not only to martyrdom. There are many ways to give one’s life, because in essence every time we truly love someone we are living our life for him. One of these ways is to forgive those who have offended us – because of this; when Jesus grants the Holy Ghost to the apostles he gives them the mandate to forgive sins. They, the first priests, could from that moment on, transmit the sacrament of forgiveness for sins, the same way that Catholic priests continue to do today. The majority of Christians, because they are lay men, cannot, impart this sacrament, but however they can forgive their enemies. And once again we manifest that it is difficult and at times impossible. This is why we must restore our faith in the strength of God, that will be the only thing to make us capable of loving to the point of forgiving. And we must ask the Holy Ghost of forgiveness to be able to carry it out.
Intention: Ask God to help us forgive and then really try to. To make it easier, start by practising what Christ commanded of us: to pray for our enemies.