My Dear People,

Congratulations to all the candidates who entered the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil!

Jesus appears to the apostles on the evening of the day on which he rose. He presents himself in their midst without any need for doors to be opened, by using the qualities of his glorified body; but to dispel any impression that he is only a spirit he shows them his hands and his side; there is no longer any doubt of this being Jesus himself, about his being truly risen from the dead. He greets them twice using words of greeting customary among the Jews, with the same tenderness as he previously used to put into this salutation. These friendly words dispel the fear and shame the Apostles must have been feeling at behaving so disloyally during his Passion: he has recreated the normal atmosphere of intimacy, and now he will endow them with transcendental powers.

Pope Leo XIII explained how Christ transferred his own mission to the Apostles: “What did he wish regarding the Church founded or about to be founded? This: to transmit to it the same mission and the same mandate which he had received from the Father, that they should be perpetuated. This he clearly resolved to do: this he did. “As the Father hath sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). ‘as you did send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17:18).  When he was about to ascend into heaven he sends his Apostles by virtue of the same power by which he had been sent from the Father: and he charges them to spread abroad and propagate his teaching, so that those disobeying should perish.  Hence, he commands that the teaching of the Apostles should be religiously accepted and piously kept as if it were his own: ‘He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me’ (Lk. 10: 16). Wherefore the Apostles are ambassadors of Christ as he is the ambassador of the Father. In this mission the bishops are the successors of the Apostles: “Christ sent the Apostles, as he himself has been sent by the Father, and then through the Apostles made their successors, the bishops, sharers in his consecration and mission. The function of the bishops’ ministry was handed over in the subordinate degree to the priests so that they might be appointed in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ” (Vatican II Presbyterorum ordinis, 2).

The church has always understood—and has in fact defined—that Jesus Christ here conferred on the Apostles authority to forgive sins, a power which is exercised in the Sacrament of Penance. “The Lord then especially instituted the Sacrament of Penance when, after being risen from the dead, he breathed upon the disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit…

 The consensus of all the Fathers has always acknowledged that by this action so sublime and words so clear the power of forgiving and retaining sins was given to the Apostles and their lawful successors for reconciling the faithful who have fallen after Baptism”. (Council of Trent)

The Sacrament of Penance is the most sublime expression of God’s love and mercy towards men, described so vividly in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (cf. Luke 15:11-32). The Lord always awaits us, with his arms wide open, waiting for us to repent –and then he will forgive us and restore us to the dignity of being his sons.  The popes have consistently recommended Christians to have regular recourse to the Sacrament: “For a constant and speedy advancement in the path of virtue we highly recommend the pious practice of frequent confessions, introduced by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for by this means we grow in a true knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility, bad habits are uprooted, spiritual negligence and apathy are prevented, the conscience is purified and the will strengthened, salutary spiritual direction is obtained, and race increased by the efficacy of the Sacrament itself” (Pious XII Mistici Corporis).

Yours in Christ.

 Fr. Vincent Clemente