Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit

Today's Reflections 

      

Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit

Jn 20:19-23

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. ²³Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

THE VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SPIRIT. Jesus tells Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, that the Spirit (Hebrew ruach) of God is like the wind that blows where it wills; it can be felt and heard, but no one can picture what it really is or predict the direction of its movement (cf Jn 3:8).

In Scriptures, the ruach elohim is described in a variety of ways, each concept presenting something of the Spirit but never truly capturing it. The Spirit may be likened to a diamond that has many sides and angles; each side presents something of the beauty of the diamond, but only partly. The liturgy offers us a wealth of scriptural readings to enable us to wonder and be awed by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

In the First Reading, Luke pictures the Spirit descending on the believers gathered in the upper room like a strong driving wind and resting upon them in tongues as of fire (cf Acts 2:3). Wind and fire are powerful natural elements, and they fittingly symbolize the divine action that changes and empowers the disciples to proclaim boldly that Jesus is the Messiah whom God raised from the dead.

The Gospel, on the other hand, has the risen Jesus “breathing” on the disciples, giving them the Holy Spirit. The action is less perceptible, but the effect is no less tremendous: the disciples are empowered to forgive sins, renewing people in the depths of their being.

The Johannine scene recalls the prophet Elijah’s experience of the Lord on the mountain of God, Horeb. A strong and heavy wind came, but the Lord was not in the wind. Neither was the Lord in the earthquake or in the fire. Then came a tiny whispering sound, and Elijah hid his face because he stood before the Lord (cf 1 Kgs 19:9-13).

Indeed, the Spirit of the Lord manifests itself with a “bang” or with the “sound of silence.”