The Institution of Divine Mercy

Gospel Reflection for April 27, 2025, Divine Mercy Sunday - John 20:19-31

Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you.

And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.

When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you.

Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.

Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God.

Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.

Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31 DRA)

Today is the second Sunday of Easter. It is also Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast day established by Pope St. John Paul II in honor of the Divine Mercy devotion given to St. Faustina Kowalska by Our Lord. For this reason, I would like to focus on a specific aspect of our Gospel reading, namely the words of Christ spoken to the ten apostles when He first appeared to them while St. Thomas was absent: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

These words have caused much controversy over the centuries, especially since the Protestant Revolution, when the Sacrament of Penance and the unique authority of priests acting in persona Christi to forgive sins were denied. But this great Sacrament was indeed created by Christ (like the other six Sacraments), and its beginning can be assigned to the special charism of the Holy Ghost which He breathed onto them on this Sunday evening two millennia ago. Since that time, priests have remitted the sins of countless millions of Catholics (as well as Orthodox, whose valid priests and bishops also share this faculty), and the faith of the Church has always been that there is no other ordinary means by which our sins may be forgiven by God in this life. He can, of course, act outside of these means, as He did for St. Dismas crucified beside Our Lord, but in normal circumstances, Confession is the only instrument He gave us to receive His Divine Mercy.

Truly, it is difficult to think of any other way by which Our Lord’s quoted words may be understood. Earlier, when Christ forgave sins, the Pharisees said, “Why doth this man speak thus? he blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins, but God only?” (Mk 2:7) But He explained, “the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins”. (Mt 9:6) This does not refute the Pharisees’ claim: it is true that only God can forgive sins. The only way, therefore, that Christ can forgive sins is because He is God; likewise, the only way any ordinary human person can forgive sins is by sharing in His divine authority.

The common argument of Protestants is that, by His words to the apostles, He simply promised that anyone who confesses his sins to God will be forgiven, or else that He gave this authority to all Christians, but this is not how the passage was ever interpreted, in an exclusive sense, by Christians throughout history, nor does it reflect how they lived out their faith in the Sacrament of Penance. It also violates the sense of Scripture read as a whole: forgiving sins is always a priestly prerogative. Anyone may forgive someone’s sins against them, but to forgive a person’s offenses against God is a special act. This is why Christ said previously to St. Peter, prince of the apostles, “And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” (Mt 16:19) Just as the keys are not given to every Christian but only to those with the Petrine office, so is the authority to forgive sins not given to every Christian but only to those with apostolic authority to act in His name, to wit, the bishops and priests of the Church. For this reason, Christ extended the authority to “bind and loose” to the other apostles in Matthew 18:18.

This special charism given by Christ to the apostles was recognized by Christians from the earliest times. The Didache, a catechetical document written around 50 AD, taught,

In the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life… But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.

Notice it says to confess your sins “in the church,” not simply in private to God. We can, of course, confess our sins to God, as Christ taught us to do in the Lord’s Prayer, but the Church has always distinguished between venial sins, which do not cause a complete break of relationship with God and so can be forgiven without a special sacramental action, and mortal sins which destroy charity, sanctifying grace and divine life in the soul and thus require the Sacrament of Penance to restore. (1 Jn 5:16-17) This is also why St. James instructed, “Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James 5:14-15)

In the early Church, Confession occurred for the most part publicly, but over time, especially due to the influence of Irish missionaries, private Confession became the norm. But in either form of the Sacrament, Christ teaches us an important lesson: sin is primarily against God but also damages our communion with His Body, the Church, which mediates and dispenses His grace on Earth. Accordingly, for mortal sins which destroy our relationship with God and thus also break our communion with the Church, confessing privately to God is not enough: He wants to forgive our sins through the Church, so that our communion with the Body of Christ may also be healed. It is always God who forgive our sins in Christ, but He wills to do so through the Church, to teach us that Christianity is not individualistic and private but communal, public rather than secret like the cults of pagans, open and unashamed, granting the freedom of the saints and the joy of authentic purity. For this reason, in 215 AD, St. Hippolytus of Rome recorded this description of the ordination of a bishop:

After this, one of the bishops present, at the request of all, laying his hand on him who is ordained bishop, shall pray this way: O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… pour forth the power that is from you, of ‘the princely Spirit’ that you delivered to your beloved Child, Jesus Christ, and that he bestowed on your holy apostles, who established the Church that hallows you everywhere, for the endless glory and praise of your name. Father, ‘who knows the hearts [of all]’ grant this servant, who you have chosen for the episcopate, to feed your holy flock and serve as your high priest blamelessly night and day, and unceasingly turn away wrath from your face and offer to you the gifts of the holy Church. And that by the high priestly Spirit he may have authority ‘to forgive sins’ according to your command.

St. Basil of Caesarea in 375 AD similarly wrote,

It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries has been entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist; but in Acts they confessed to the apostles, by whom also all were baptized.

As these early quotations make clear, the Protestant position is an utter novelty of the 16^th century, one which is wholly divorced from history, Scripture and the Tradition of the saints. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, may we rediscover the unfathomable blessing of the Sacrament of Penance, where we can receive true certainty that our sins are forgiven, lifting the weight of guilt from our shoulders and enabling us to become beacons of the mercy of Christ to the world. I also pray that our holy priests will make Confession more available to the faithful (before Mass, not after), both in frequency and convenience, so that no one may have an excuse for clinging to their sins.