Helping Catholics know & love the Lord and his Church
Advertisement

Byline: Sister Anna Marie McGuan

6 min read
Religious Life

Why Celibacy?

6 min read
9022 views
Comments Off on Why Celibacy?
6 min read

Recently, I was asked about priestly celibacy by a person interested in becoming Catholic. The practice of priestly celibacy is viewed with suspicion, he explained, because Protestants are unfamiliar with…

Recently, I was asked about priestly celibacy by a person interested in becoming Catholic. The practice of priestly celibacy is viewed with suspicion, he explained, because Protestants are unfamiliar with it and it seems unnatural. Besides that, his is a timely question given that some people have pointed to celibacy as having a direct causal link to the abuse crisis in the Church.

Celibacy, or chastity, seems like a stumbling block for people. What is celibacy, exactly? According to the glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, celibacy is “the state or condition of those who have chosen to remain unmarried.”

But why would a man choose that life, or why is this the standard discipline for priests in the Roman (Latin-rite) Catholic Church?

First, the nature of the priesthood has to be understood. Simply put, each man who becomes a priest becomes a minister of Jesus Christ’s own priesthood. Jesus’ priesthood is made visible and present through these ordained ministers. They participate in Jesus’ life and priesthood in a specific way. Therefore, a look at Scripture and how Jesus himself lived is helpful to see the foundations on which priest’s life is modeled.

Jesus did not marry. He also spoke positively about those who remain celibate “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:12). Indeed, Jesus chose, from among his followers, certain men to be with him and become “fishers of men” (Mt 4:19; Mk 1:17). His invitation to them was to leave everything behind for the sake of the kingdom of God. Therefore, this practice of total dedication to God in and through Christ goes back to the very beginning of discipleship. Today as well, men are chosen by God to “to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord” (CCC, No. 1579).

Jesus is not the only person in the Bible, however, to have lived a single life with the intention of being consecrated for God’s purposes. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, appears to have remained celibate. He was called from his youth (see Jer 1:6-7) and never mentions a wife or family like some of the other prophets. Another example, closer to the time of Jesus, is John the Baptist. The last in the long line of biblical prophets, John’s entire life was lived as a sign that pointed to Jesus, even from his time in the womb (Lk 1:41-44). Everything about him pointed to the transcendent realm, including his choice to forego a wife and children. While it is true that celibacy was not a common practice at the time of Christ, it was not unheard of. In fact, there are examples from Qumran, a desert community in existence around the time of Jesus, of a type of celibacy lived in community.

Additionally, priests are not the only celibates in the Catholic Church. The consecrated life in its various forms entails some type of commitment to chastity, either a promise, private vow, public vow or some other sacred bond.

Getting back to the definition of celibacy mentioned above, it related only to the state of being unmarried. Any discussion on celibacy must relate back to chastity, which is the virtue by which a person integrates his or her sexuality in a healthy way appropriate to his or her state in life. The goal of chastity is the wholeness and integrity of the person in his bodily and spiritual being. This is true for married persons as well as celibate persons. However, chastity in the context of consecrated life entails refraining from any behaviors in the realm of sexuality that belong properly to marriage, as well as avoiding any offenses against chastity such as masturbation, pornography or fornication. Religious chastity is also a gift to those called by God to lead a life totally dedicated to him.

Is it “unnatural” to lead a celibate life and, therefore, practice continence within chastity? In one sense, yes, and in another, no. The proper path of sexual expression for most people is that of marriage, in which two persons give each other their bodies as “a sign and pledge of spiritual communion” (CCC, No. 2360). This is a great good, and marriage, while not easy, is the natural path that most people take to live the vocation to love God and neighbor to which we are all called.

There are some, however, as Jesus points out in the Gospels, who renounce marriage and the goods of marriage (holiness together as husband and wife, welcoming and educating children) for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Not only that, the fact that some people do this is a very good thing.

Living out chastity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven means to live one’s life as a sign that points to God all the time. The married state is good and beautiful, and at the same time God is more beautiful and better. He is so good, in fact, that it is legitimate to offer everything to him and live for him alone. A consecrated person, whether priest or religious, witnesses to that by the very way he or she lives. The highest form of love is not the love between husband and love, it is the love of God, charity. This charity can and should inform all other relationships of love. This means that they are rooted in a person’s relationship with God and lead to a further and deeper love of God.

In addition, Jesus tells us that there will be no marriage in heaven. Rather, he says, in “the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven” (Mt 22:30). For this reason, the consecrated life or the celibate life is an eschatological signpost that points to heaven. Essentially, the message is: Remember where you ultimately want to be headed. Remember your end. Do what it takes to get there.

Returning to an earlier question, living chastity for the kingdom of heaven is not “unnatural” — it is supernatural. It is to live as God’s messenger, all day, every day. Like all vocations, that takes faith, hope and charity. It also takes prayer, asceticism, more prayer and fidelity to the age-old practices that help form the interior spiritual life. Good, holy friendships are also a wonderful aid to chastity, no matter what a person’s vocation is.

The goal in each vocation is to love God with all one’s heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love one’s neighbor like one’s self. To each person, God will give the graces necessary to grow in holiness if and when we cooperate with him.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, R.S.M., is Director of Christian Formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on Why Celibacy?
5 min read
Church Seasons and Feasts

Two things to know about Christ’s ascension into heaven

5 min read
12589 views
Comments Off on Two things to know about Christ’s ascension into heaven
5 min read

The ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven is a mystery rooted in history and spoken of in Scripture, like the Resurrection. It is presented both at the end of…

The ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven is a mystery rooted in history and spoken of in Scripture, like the Resurrection. It is presented both at the end of Matthew’s Gospel and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. It is also alluded to in John’s Gospel, when the risen Jesus encounters Mary Magdalene and says, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (Jn 20:17).

The Ascension is the completion of the Easter mysteries of Jesus’ life, passion, death and resurrection, and it is the final step before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand” (No. 659).

Yet perhaps we feel somewhat like the Apostles who witnessed the Ascension, standing there, looking up, wondering what just happened. Why did Jesus go? Where did he go? The angels’ response to them is apropos for us, too: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

There are two things to remember about this mystery. First, in a very real way, Jesus’ ascension into heaven is the goal for each one of us. He goes before us, and we are to follow Him there. In the Ascension, the domain of God’s glory is opened to us, and Jesus, in His glorified humanity, takes His rightful place at God’s right hand. It is a privilege for all of us that one of our own, a man like us in all things but sin, has been so glorified. Not only that, he is calling us and interceding for us always so that we will one day join him. As the Catechism states: “Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the ‘Father’s house,’ to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us” (No. 661).

The second thing to remember about this mystery is that Jesus will come back. When that day comes, we should be ready. He has asked us to be his faithful disciples, living in a vital friendship with him. This is not magic, however. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit, whom each of us receives in baptism and confirmation. It also takes a lived relationship with God in prayer. Finally, Jesus expects us to be open, available and ready to cooperate with him in the mission he calls us to.

The last thing Jesus said to the Apostles was, “But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In Matthew’s Gospel, the last injunction is similar: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (28:19-20). If we live out that mission from Christ, and truly make disciples of all nations, then his presence is with us despite his bodily absence. First and foremost, Jesus is with us in the Eucharist and in the liturgy of the Church. Jesusalso is present spiritually when we pray in his name, as he said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).

Jesus’ work on earth is now complete, but the task of bearing witness to Him and making disciples is never done, not until he returns at the end of time. That is the task the Apostles began to do, starting with prayer in the upper room as they awaited the promised Holy Spirit. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was there with them. Clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles and disciples of Jesus began to preach and teach about him to Jews and to Gentiles. They began to do what the Lord Jesus asked them to do: bear witness and make disciples. That task is not just theirs; it belongs to all of us.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, R.S.M., is Director of Christian Formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on Two things to know about Christ’s ascension into heaven
5 min read
Easter

The Formation of the Gospels and Good Shepherd Sunday

5 min read
2471 views
Comments Off on The Formation of the Gospels and Good Shepherd Sunday
5 min read

The Good Shepherd Gospel reading on the Fourth Sunday of Easter seems out of place because it takes us back in time before the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus….

The Good Shepherd Gospel reading on the Fourth Sunday of Easter seems out of place because it takes us back in time before the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. On the preceding Sundays of Easter, the focus has been on the Resurrection appearances — beautiful moments of joy, trepidation, surprise and hope. The Good Shepherd passage, however, has something important to teach us about the formation of the New Testament.

In recalling that all of the Gospels were written after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, we have to conclude that everything contained within them was written in the light of the Resurrection, that is, with the end in mind: the victory of Jesus over sin and death. The Gospels, in other words, record the life and teaching, the death and resurrection of Jesus, as told to us through the faith of the Apostles who knew him and loved him. The Apostles are telling the story of Jesus in faith and for faith — to inspire us to believe in Jesus.

Not everything that Jesus said and did was understood at the time, certainly not before the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. John himself tells us as much in his Gospel. For example, after the cleansing of the temple, John wrote, giving us just one example of how a word spoken by Jesus could only be understood in the light of later events: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,* and you will raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken” (Jn 2: 19-22).

Another such example is when Jesus spoke about himself as the Good Shepherd: “Although Jesus used this figure of speech,* they did not realize what he was trying to tell them” (Jn 10:6). After Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, Peter and the others came to understand these words, especially where Jesus explicitly says of himself: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). We know this because Peter refers to Jesus as the shepherd in his first letter: “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls” (2:24-25).

Passages like Jesus’ description of the Good Shepherd illustrate how the evangelists often show how the Apostles were mystified by things that Jesus said and did. Certainly, the Apostles did not hide that fact in their preaching. The Gospel writers told the story of Jesus to the best of their ability, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The process of transmitting Divine Revelation in the form of the Gospels happened rapidly, over the course of about 50 years. But a key to their writing was how they came to understand Jesus’ words in light of his death and Resurrection.

How did the Gospel writers compose their Gospels? The Church teaches about three stages of the formation regarding the canonical (meaning accepted as inspired by God and read in the liturgy) Gospels in the Catechism (CCC, No. 126). The first stage simply relates to the life and teaching of Jesus. Depending on the witness of the Apostles — who were with Jesus, called by Jesus to form his intimate circle of companions and to be the foundation of his Church — who passed on what Jesus said and did. The second stage came when, after Jesus’ Ascension, once they were enlightened by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles preached boldly, not in weakness. They knew and loved Jesus, and they wanted everyone to know who he was. They wanted everyone to have access to the mystery of God’s life through faith in Jesus and through baptism. In the third stage, the Gospel writers selected both oral and written materials to prepare their texts. They organized what they heard and read in order to write most effectively to the diverse audiences of their time.

According to a long-standing tradition in the Church, some of the Gospel writers were Apostles and others were not, but they preserved and wrote down the apostolic preaching: what the Apostles learned from Jesus himself, and what they themselves saw. St. Justin Martyr, who died around 165 AD, identifies the Gospels more than once as the memoirs of the Apostles. The Gospels continue to teach us about the life and teaching of Jesus. They are God’s gift to His Church, and their apostolic origin is undeniable.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on The Formation of the Gospels and Good Shepherd Sunday
4 min read
Easter

The Resurrection and Scripture: Lessons from the Road to Emmaus

4 min read
2232 views
Comments Off on The Resurrection and Scripture: Lessons from the Road to Emmaus
4 min read

On Easter morning, two disciples were traveling on the road to Emmaus. Leaving Jerusalem, they were downcast and disappointed over what had happened to Jesus. They did not understand the…

On Easter morning, two disciples were traveling on the road to Emmaus. Leaving Jerusalem, they were downcast and disappointed over what had happened to Jesus. They did not understand the stories of the women who said that they had seen him early that morning. As the disciples were walking away from the holy city, Jesus came and walked alongside them.

As in the other resurrection appearances, the disciples did not recognize Jesus. And, as in the other appearances, Jesus did not reveal himself immediately. Instead, he walked with these two disciples and engaged them in conversation. They expressed their frustration and sorrow over the events of Good Friday. One of them, named Clopas, said:

“‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?’ And (Jesus) replied to them, ‘What sort of things?’ They said to him, ‘The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel’” (Lk 24:18-21).

Continuing, Clopas explained about the testimony of the women and how strange it all had been. Having only heard the women’s account, the disciples did not know what to make of the disappearance of the body. No one understood what resurrection from the dead even meant.

Jesus listened patiently, but instead of nodding in an understanding way, he turned their sorrow on its head — to their shock and our surprise — saying, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:25-26).

Jesus explained that it was actually necessary that the Messiah would undergo the suffering of the Passion and crucifixion. He does this by walking the disciples through the Old Testament. The evangelist writes: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (Lk 24:27).

At this point, of course, there was no New Testament as we have today, so “all the scriptures” referred to here are only the writings of the Old Testament. The apostles and disciples had only the Greek and Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament, along with their own experience of being with Jesus and watching him suffer and die. Without Jesus’ help, they could not make the connections between what happened to Jesus and the writings of Moses and the prophets.

What Jesus did on the road to Emmaus was interpret the writings of the Old Testament in terms of their relationship to his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection — all of which fulfilled the Old Testament. They were predicted, and everything that happened to Jesus was there, albeit hidden from the disciples’ understanding. Jesus opened their minds and hearts to see his life and death in the light of the Old Testament. Without the Old Testament, the life, teaching and sacrificial death of Jesus would be incomprehensible.

The Church in every age has followed Jesus’ example on the road to Emmaus, upholding the value of the inspired Hebrew and Greek writings that prepared for the coming of Jesus. The apostles passed on the fullness of God’s revelation by showing reverence to the Old Testament, while composing the writings we now call the New Testament.

The Old Testament is a part of God’s Revelation and finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Additionally, there is a principle of continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament, such that the two must never be separated. From St. Augustine, the Church still holds this classic maxim: the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are God’s word, all part of God’s Revelation, in which he shows forth who he is and who we are in relation to Him. Jesus taught this on the road to Emmaus, and his exposition of the Scriptures set the hearts of the disciples on fire.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on The Resurrection and Scripture: Lessons from the Road to Emmaus
5 min read
Scripture

Why the Holy Spirit matters

5 min read
3706 views
Comments Off on Why the Holy Spirit matters
5 min read

Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper many things about the Holy Spirit, and some of these are included in the readings at this time, such as: “And I…

Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper many things about the Holy Spirit, and some of these are included in the readings at this time, such as: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth…” (Jn 14:16-17). In another moment during the Last Supper discourse, Jesus even said to the Apostles, “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). The Holy Spirit’s presence with the Apostles, disciples and with the entire Church throughout the centuries is always meant to be a comfort, a consolation, a leader and a guide to Jesus’ friends.

If we think back to the Last Supper, it is totally appropriate that Jesus would make such a promise at that time. The impending departure of Jesus was troubling his friends. They did not know what was about to happen, and they did not understand many of the things Jesus was saying. All they really seemed to grasp at that moment was that Jesus was going away — and this reality left them in the dark, even desolate.

Jesus knew this, so at the Last Supper he not only instituted the holy Eucharist, whereby he would always be present to his friends, but he also promised them the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. He told them that the Holy Spirit would dwell with them and be with them. The Holy Spirit’s presence in and among the disciples would make it possible for them to live for Jesus, just as he was asking them to do. Living for Jesus means more than a simple calling to mind; it is to actually live Christ’s life within the sphere of my own existence. As St. Paul put it, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Phil 1:21). It is the Holy Spirit that enables that sentence to be true for Paul and for all of us.

The Holy Spirit makes God’s plan for each of us real, and we know the Holy Spirit by what he does in each life. Here is one way the Catechism expresses this: “…[T]he mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite [God’s children] to Christ and make them live in him…” (CCC, No. 690).

In other words, that mission is to reveal Jesus, the Word of God, and to make the image of Jesus fully alive in each person. The Holy Spirit teaches us who Jesus is and how we are to become more and more like him. He also makes us ready to receive Jesus in faith. The life of a baptized person can be an ever increasing union with God through faith, hope and love. The Holy Spirit is the author of that union; he teaches us how to know God better and love Him more fully.

There are many ways that the Holy Spirit can do this, but two very important ones are through Sacred Scripture and through the sacraments. In Sacred Scripture, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred authors to write is the one who dwells within the heart of each person reading it. As the Spirit inspired the writing, so the Spirit inspires the reading — so that the mind and heart of Christ can be formed in us.

In the Sacraments, we receive grace. Grace makes us like God, but we have to be disposed to it and cooperate with it. What does it mean to be like God? What does God do? Above all else, God knows and loves himself and knows and loves all things in himself. That is why the Lord Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to love God: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). The Holy Spirit teaches us and forms us to do what Jesus taught us to do. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to do this, because “The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church” (CCC, No. 747).

If you do not have an active and growing relationship with the Holy Spirit, you can ask for that friendship with Him at any time. You can invite the Holy Spirit to play a real, dynamic role in your life starting now. As we turn our minds and hearts toward Pentecost, we can invite the Holy Spirit to renew Pentecost in our own lives.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on Why the Holy Spirit matters
5 min read
Easter

The Resurrection and the Gospels: Apostolic Eyewitnesses

5 min read
3249 views
Comments Off on The Resurrection and the Gospels: Apostolic Eyewitnesses
5 min read

The readings during the Easter Season, especially during the octave of Easter, the eight days from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday, go through several apparitions of the risen and…

The readings during the Easter Season, especially during the octave of Easter, the eight days from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday, go through several apparitions of the risen and glorified Jesus to his apostles and disciples. There are several different stories, and not all of them appear in all the Gospels. This may lead one to question their veracity: Why didn’t the Gospel writers share the same stories? Why did some talk about Jesus’ Resurrection appearances in detail, like John, and some almost not at all, like Mark? Do such discrepancies mean that the Resurrection is a falsehood?

Quite the contrary, actually. The diversity of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection attests more strongly to their authenticity. The reasoning goes like this: if the Gospel writers were going to make up the Resurrection of Jesus or if the Apostles taught a made-up doctrine to the first Christians, they would have been united in their story. It would have been something rehearsed, perhaps even memorized, among the Apostles and evangelists. Instead, each Gospel writer offers a unique perspective. As Craig Blomberg, author of The Historical Reliability of the New Testament, writes: “ … [T]he fact that the four writers each include enough unique material to their narratives, while overall clearly narrating the same event, suggests a greater degree of literary independence … decreasing the likelihood of collusion” (B&H Academic, 2016). In other words, the Gospel writers each had a way to tell the great story of Jesus. They also had audiences they were attempting to reach, so their Resurrection reports, like the rest of their Gospels, vary in some of the details, while agreeing in the essential points.

One of those essentials is that the new humanity of the risen Jesus was different than before. The Resurrection seemed so unbelievable that Jesus himself had to convince his Apostles time and again that it was really he who was in their midst. That is why he ate with them, even cooked for them, and invited St. Thomas the Apostle to touch His wounds. Thomas’ exclamation has echoed down the ages in the Church as the quintessential act of faith in the risen Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28).

In fact, the Apostles were absolutely certain that the Jesus who appeared to them was the same Jesus who had died on Good Friday. His humanity was changed, but he was the same person. Only God could do such a thing, could create such a new reality. That is the message that the Apostles proclaimed from the very beginning when they preached. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “Christ’s apostles knew that they were called by God as ‘ministers of a new covenant,’ ‘servants of God,’ ‘ambassadors for Christ,’ ‘servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God’” (No. 859). Their relentless witnessing to Jesus, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit and mandated by Jesus himself, got them into trouble time and again, but they did not stop. They and their followers were arrested by the Jewish authorities and sometimes killed. If they were not executed by the Jews, then they were killed by the Roman government. Both St. Peter and St. Paul, for example, were martyred in Rome. The only apostle who did not suffer martyrdom was St. John, the beloved disciple, although he did endure torments and exile. They went to their deaths proclaiming the reality of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead and salvation for all people through him. Before they died, the Apostles ensured that the life and person of Jesus would continue to be preached and that the sacraments would be celebrated. Recall that during the resurrection appearances, Jesus conferred authority on his Apostles. In Matthew, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Mt 28:18).

In John, Jesus breathes on the disciples, imparting to them the Holy Spirit: “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (Jn 20:21-23). As the Catechism states: “Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying: they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors” (No. 1087). The apostles made sure that their authority would not die with them. Since it came from Jesus himself, it was meant to be a part of Jesus’ Church forever.

The Holy Spirit pushed the Apostles out and into the world, to preach and teach people about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Forgiveness of sins was offered in Jesus’ name, and the Apostles had the authority to teach that and to offer that forgiveness to each and every person. They were impelled to share the Gospel, to freely give away what they had received. They passed on that apostolic mission to their successors and, in this way, empowered the Church of all times to make disciples of all nations.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

Continue Reading
Comments Off on The Resurrection and the Gospels: Apostolic Eyewitnesses
Advertisement

Instagram

Type on the field below and hit Enter/Return to search

Bitnami