“He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (Jn 20:22-23).
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I find the role of breath fascinating in this portion of today’s gospel. Not only does the Holy Spirit via Christ’s breath establish the sacrament of Confession here, but there are further mysteries about God’s breath worth us pondering. Let’s go beneath the surface on a few.
Love is truth and life
Biblical verbiage speaks of the Word and the Breath of God, Truth and Life respectively, as the second and third Persons of the Trinity. Scripture also attests that God is Love (1 Jn 4:8): His Word is truth (Jn 1:1, 14:6) and His Breath is Life (Jn 6:63).
We cannot embrace the Word without the Breath
With human language, one cannot hear another’s words without his breath. It is the person’s breath (as he speaks) that enables his words to become audible for others to hear. Analogously, one cannot know the Son (God’s Word) without the Holy Spirit (God’s Breath) enabling him. God’s eternal Word, echoing through the centuries, cannot be heard or understood if one’s heart is closed to His eternal Breath. As Scripture says, without the Holy Spirit one cannot say (and mean) ‘Jesus is Lord’ (1 Cor 12:3).
One cannot access reality outside the Word
For created intellects to know reality as it is, we must be in the Logos, the Son, who is the Mediator between the mind and the truth (Jn 8:32). Through Him all things (including us) are made, and through Him all created intellects (including ours and the angels’) have access to Reality. If we love ourselves more than Truth we will always deny the truth and rationalize for self-centered ends. We cannot serve two masters.
It is an act of abuse to separate truth and life from love
Since the eternal Trinity is Love, which by definition contains Truth and Life, then true love is life-giving. The Holy Spirit (Life) is the love between the Father and the Son. He is life-giving love eternally unimpeded between the Persons of the Trinity. Likewise, between the persons of the family, particularly in the marriage act, life must be unimpeded. This is why contraception is a grave sin. As images of God, whenever we intentionally impede life we no longer have love, but its contrary. Contraception disfigures God’s Trinitarian image of earth, unnaturally replacing love with selfishness.
Without the Holy Spirit we cannot know the truth about love.
Come Breath of God, enable us to know Your Word and imitate your Love — for Your glory, the good of others, and our own fulfillment. Amen.