Pentecost Sunday

Homilies from Aquinas, Basil, and Chrysostom

Gospel

(John 20:19-23)

And now it was evening on the same day, the first day of the week; for fear of the Jews, the disciples had locked the doors of the room in which they had assembled; and Jesus came, and stood there in their midst; “Peace be upon you,” he said. And with that, he shewed them his hands and his side. Thus the disciples saw the Lord, and were glad.

Once more Jesus said to them, Peace be upon you; I came upon an errand from my Father, and now I am sending you out in my turn.

With that, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit; when you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven, when you hold them bound, they are held bound.

Commentary

St. Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on the Gospel of John (2536 - 2543)

Now he charges the apostles with their ministry: first, he grants them the bond of peace; second, he charges them, as the Father has sent me.

He said therefore to them again: peace be with you. He said this to counter a twofold anxiety. The first time he said, peace be with you, was to combat the anxiety caused by the Jews; but when he said the second time, peace be with you, this was to deal with the anxiety to come from the gentiles: in me you may have peace. In the world you will have distress (John 16:33). He said this because they were about to be sent to the gentiles.

Accordingly, Jesus immediately enjoins them, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. This shows that he is the intermediary between us and God: there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). This was a source of strength for the disciples: for they recognized the authority of Christ, and knew that he was sending them by divine authority. They were also strengthened because they recognized their own dignity, the dignity of being apostles; for an apostle is one who is sent.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you: that is, as the Father, who loves me, sent me into the world to suffer for the salvation of the faithful, for God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17), so I, who love you, send you to undergo suffering for my name, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matt 10:16).

Jesus makes them adequate for their task by giving them the Holy Spirit, God, who has qualified us to be ministers of a New Covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit (2 Cor 3:6).

Whence follows, when he had said this, he breathed on them. In this giving of the Spirit, he first grants them a sign of this gift, which is, that he breathed on them. We see something like this in Genesis, when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen 2:7), namely natural life, which the first man corrupted, but Christ repaired this by giving the Holy Spirit.

We should not suppose that this breath of Christ was the Holy Spirit; it was a sign of the Spirit. So Augustine says, in On the Trinity: this bodily breath was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a fitting sign that the Holy Spirit proceeds not just from the Father but also from the Son.

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We see the words used when the Spirit was given, receive the Holy Spirit.

But did they receive the Holy Spirit then? It seems not, for since Christ had not yet ascended, it was not fitting that he give gifts to us. Indeed, according to Chrysostom, there were some who said that Christ did not give them the Holy Spirit at that time, but prepared them for the future giving of the Spirit at Pentecost. They were brought to this opinion because Daniel could not endure his sight of an angel (Dan 10:8), and so these disciples could not have endured the coming of the Holy Spirit unless they had been prepared. But Chrysostom himself says that the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples, not for all tasks in general, but for a specific task, that is, to forgive sin. Augustine and Gregory say that the Holy Spirit has two precepts of love: love of God and of neighbor. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was given the first time on earth to indicate the precept of the love of neighbor; and the Spirit was given the second time from heaven to indicate the precept of the love of God.

Third, we see the fruit of the gift, whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them. This forgiving of sins is a fitting effect of the Holy Spirit. This is so because the Holy Spirit is charity, and through him, charity is given to us: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Now it is only through love that sins are forgiven, for love covers all offenses (Prov 10:12); love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8).

We can ask here why we read, whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them, for only God forgives sins? Some say that only God forgives the sin, while the priest absolves only from the debt of punishment, and pronounces the person free from the stain of sin.

This is not true: for the sacrament of penance, since it is a sacrament of the new law, gives grace, as does baptism. Now in the sacrament of baptism, the priest baptizes as an instrument, and yet he confers grace. It is similar in the sacrament of penance, the priest absolves from the sin and the punishment as a minister and sacramentally, insofar as he administers the sacrament in which sins are forgiven. The statement that God alone forgives sins authoritatively is true. So also, only God baptizes, but the priest is the minister, as was said.

St. Basil the Great De Spiritu Sancto

But when we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who will gainsay their having been accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Whether you wish to examine ancient evidence — the blessings of the patriarchs, the succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;— or on the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our Lord in the flesh — all is through the Spirit. In the first place He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written, Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is my beloved Son; and Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit.

After this every operation was wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit. He was present when the Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is said, Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. He was inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works; for, it is said, If I by the spirit of God cast out devils.

And He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples, restoring the grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what did the Lord say? Receive the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain, they are retained.

And is it not plain and incontestable that the ordering of the Church is effected through the Spirit? For He gave, it is said, in the church, first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, for this order is ordained in accordance with the division of the gifts that are of the Spirit.

St. John Chrysostom Homilies on the Gospel of John

As a king sending forth governors, gives power to cast into prison and to deliver from it, so in sending these forth, Christ invests them with the same power. But how says He, “If I go not away, He will not come” and yet gives them the Spirit? Some say that He gave not the Spirit but rendered them fit to receive It by breathing on them. For if Daniel was afraid when he saw an Angel, what would not they have suffered when they received that unspeakable Gift, unless he had first made them learners? Therefore he said not, “You have received the Holy Ghost,” but “Receive the Holy Ghost.”

Yet one will not be wrong in asserting that they then also received some spiritual power and grace; not so as to raise the dead, or to work miracles, but so as to remit sins. For the gifts of the Spirit are of different kinds; therefore he added “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them,” showing what kind of power He was giving.

But in the other case, after forty days, they received the power of working miracles. Therefore He says, “You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea.” And witnesses they became by means of miracles, for unspeakable is the grace of the Spirit and multiform the gift.

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Let us then do all we can to have the Holy Spirit with ourselves, and let us treat with much honor those into whose hands its operation has been committed. For great is the dignity of the priests. “Whosoever sins,” it says, “ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” Therefore Paul says, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.” And hold them very exceedingly in honor; for though indeed carest about your own affairs, and if you order them well, you give no account for others. But the priest, even if he rightly orders his own life, if he has not an anxious car for yours and all around him, he will depart with the wicked into Hell.

Knowing therefore the greatness of the danger, give them a large share of your goodwill; which Paul also implied when he said, “For they watch for your souls,” and not simply so, but “as they that shall give account.” They ought therefore to receive great attention from you; but if you join with the rest in trampling upon them, then neither shall your affairs be in a good condition.