If men had been left to themselves to form their own conception of the Risen Christ, they never would have represented Him with the signs and remnants of His shame and agony on earth. Had He risen with no memorials of His Passion, men might have doubted Him with the passing of time. That there might be no doubt of the sac­rificial purpose of His coming, He gave them not only the Memorial of His death the night of the Last Supper, asking that it be perpet­uated as long as time endured, but He also bore on His Person, as Jesus Christ, the "same yesterday, today and forever," the Memorial of His Redemption. But were the Apostles convinced?

They were still unconvinced, still wondering, for it seemed too good to be true. So he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"  So they placed before Him a piece of meat and a honeycomb; He took these and ate in their presence, and He bade them share His meal. It was not a phantom that they were seeing! To some extent they believed in the Resurrection, and that belief gave them joy; but the joy was so great they could hardly believe it. At first they were too frightened to believe; now they were too joyful to believe. But Our Lord would not rest until He had completely satisfied their senses. Eating with them would be the strongest proof of His Resurrection. After raising the daughter of Jairus, He ordered that food should be given her; after the resurrection of Lazarus, Lazarus took food with Him; now, after His own Resurrection, He ate with His Apostles. Thus He would convince them that it was the same living Body which they had seen and touched and felt; but it was at the same time a Body that was glorified. It had no wounds as signs of weakness, but rather as glorious scars of victory. This glorified Body ate not as the plant draws in moisture from the earth because of need but as the sun imbibes the same from power. He had given some indications of what this glorified nature of His would be like in the Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah spoke with Him about His death. That was a promise and a pledge that corruption would put on incorruption, the mortal would put on immortality, and death be swallowed up in life.

After having proved to His disciples that He had risen by showing them His hands, feet, and side, and by eating before them, He gave to them the second salutation of peace, saying: Peace be with you; as the Father sent me, so I send you. Then he breathed on them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit!" (Jn.20:21)

The first salutation of peace was when they were frightened; now that they were filled with the joy of believing, the second salutation of peace had reference to the world. His concern was not with the world of His public life, but the whole world He had redeemed. A few hours before He had gone to His death He had prayed to His Father:  "As thou hast sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." (Jn.17:18)

Continuing the idea, He said that He was praying not only for those that would be His representatives upon earth but for everyone throughout history who would believe in Him. "But it is not for these alone that I pray, but for all those who through their words put their faith in me." (Jn.17:20)

Thus the night of the Last Supper before going to His death, He was concerned about His mission to the world after His Crucifixion-a mission into a world that had rejected Him. Now, after the Resur­rection, He reiterated the same idea to His Apostles, the twelve stones of the foundation of this city of God. In the Old Testament the high priest put stones on the raiment he wore over his breast; now the true High Priest engraved living stones on His heart. His mission and their mission was one. As Christ was sent and through His suffering entered into glory, so now He bequeathed to them His share of the Cross and, after that, His glory.

Then Our Lord breathed on them as He conferred some power of the Holy Spirit. When love is deep, it is always speechless or wordless; God's love is so deep that it can be expressed humanly by a sigh or a breath. Now that the Apostles had learned to lisp the alphabet of Re­demption, He breathed on them as a sign and an earnest of what was to come. It was but a cloud that would precede the plenteous rain; better still, it was the breath of the Spirit's influence and a foretelling of the rushing wind of Pentecost. As He had breathed into Adam the breath of natural life, so now He breathed into His Apostles, the foundation of His Church, the breath of spiritual life. As man became the image of God in virtue of the soul that was breathed into him, so now they became the image of Christ as the power of the Spirit was breathed into them. The Greek word used to express His breathing on them is employed nowhere else in the New Testament; but it is the very word which the Greek translators of the Hebrew used to describe God's breathing a living soul into Adam. Thus there was a new creation as the first fruit of the Redemption.

As He breathed on them, He gave them the Holy Spirit, which made them no longer servants, but sons. Three times the Holy Spirit is mentioned with some external sign; as a dove at Christ's baptism betokening His innocence and Divine Sonship; as fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost as a sign of the Spirit's power to convert the world; and as the breath of the Risen Christ with all of its regenerative power. As the Lord had made clay to anoint the eyes of the blind man, showing that He was the Creator of man, so now by breathing the Spirit upon His Apostles did He show that He was the regenerator of the life of the clay that fell.

Next He conferred upon them the power of forgiving sins. There was even to be a distinction between sins that the Apostles would for­give and sins they would not forgive. How they would distinguish be­tween the two would evidently depend on hearing them. He said: "If you forgive any man's sins, they stand forgiven; if you pronounce them unforgiven, unforgiven they remain." (Jn..20:.23)

As the Jewish priest pronounced who were clean and who were unclean among the lepers, so now Christ conferred the power of for­giving and withholding forgiveness on sinners. Only God can forgive sins; but God in the form of man forgave the sins of Magdalen, of the penitent thief, of the dishonest tax collector, and of others. The same law of the Incarnation would now hold; God would continue to for­give sins through man. His appointed ministers were to be the instru­ments of His forgiveness, as His own human nature was the instru­ment of His Divinity in purchasing forgiveness. These solemn words of the Risen Savior meant that sins were to be forgiven through a ju­dicial power authorized to examine the state of a soul and to grant or refuse forgiveness as the case demanded. From that day on, the rem­edy for human sin and guilt was to be a humble confession to one having authority to forgive. To be humble on one's knees confessing to one to whom Christ gave the power to forgive (rather than pros­trate on a couch to hear guilt explained away)-that was one of the greatest joys given to the burdened soul of man.

(Archbishop Fulton Sheen)