IT is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the mission entrusted by Jesus to His followers is to be carried out. John’s account (20:19-23) of Jesus giving the Spirit to them presents a powerful introduction to the Christian life on mission.
The mission of mercy and reconciliation
“Peace be with you” is more than just a wishful greeting by the risen Christ to His followers. It is a declaration of the new reality of the reconciliation in peace between God and humankind by virtue of the death and resurrection of Jesus. His task from the Father is accomplished; He has restored the communion broken by sin. Only Jesus brought this definitive harmony between the Creator and His creatures, and only from Jesus can it be received by anyone: “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you” (John 14:27).
Jesus wants all to share in His victory over sin and death; He wants His peace benefiting all humankind. And so His followers must give to others what they have received; what is good and necessary for them is good and vital also to others. It is now their turn to serve for the salvation of the world by representing Jesus and His Gospel of reconciliation. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Their mandate is to vanquish evil and sin by means of divine mercy and forgiveness, to overcome what stands between God and humanity and refuses harmony (shalom) with God. “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”
Life in the Holy Spirit
Such a mission empowered to forgive sins can be fulfilled only with the power from God. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus breathed on His followers, anointing them in an act that recalls the creative breath of God (Genesis 1:2). As the mighty wind swept over the nothingness of the beginning, so a transcendental force is needed by the frail and fearful humanity of Jesus’ followers to begin a new life on the divine mission of reconciliation. The breath of God imparted and sustained life; the Spirit/Breath of Jesus, as in a new creation or in a recreation of humankind in the Spirit, vitalizes the disciples and sustains them in the new life and mission of peace in Jesus’ continuing act of love.
Life in the peace of Jesus and the lifelong mission of mercy and reconciliation must be a life in the Holy Spirit. And it is the life for all disciples, not just for the Twelve, for all believers any time are given the greatest Gift of the Holy Spirit and the mission of peace and mercy. Also, the account purposely refers to Jesus identifying Himself and being recognized by His disciples by showing them His hands and His side. Blood and water flowed out from Jesus’ side on the cross (John 19:34), symbolic references to the Eucharist and Baptism. The continuing gift of the Holy Spirit and the life on mission in the Spirit begin for all believers in Baptism and is nourished in the Eucharist. The sacramental structure of our life in the Spirit for our mission of peace and reconciliation is divinely instituted.
Alálaong bagá, in this world of interminable wars and conflicts, of self-destructing clashes and self-righteousness, to be a true follower of Jesus means to be a missionary for peace and reconciliation. Not the superficial peace of merely suspended hostilities until the opportunity for a kill comes along, but the peace of solid harmony with everyone, manifest in the equal dignity and rights of all, and rooted on the fundamental reconciliation of humanity with God mediated by Jesus Christ. It is peace that is based on the victory over sin and evil, which is only conceivable in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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