Pentecost Sunday

“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

When the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, they are given the power to loose and bind sins as well. Jesus could have given them any power, and yet he gives them this one. He gives them the power of forgiveness. God wants us to be forgiven. He wants us to be freed from sins if at all possible. When we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism and confirm it in the sacrament of Confirmation, we might not receive the power to loose and bind sins as the disciples did (since they also received the indelible character of Christ through the sacrament of Ordination). However, we too are call to be forgiving as God is forgiving.

Who are the people in our lives whom we need to forgive? Who do we need forgiveness from? What’s holding us back from freeing ourselves and others from the bonds of sin?

O Lord, send us your Holy Spirit.

Amen.