The Solemnity of Pentecost, May 23, 2021

John 20:19–23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.” As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

“On the evening”.  The Greek says, “late in the day”, which would mean the mid-afternoon, if John is speaking according to the Hebrew way of reckoning the days.  Otherwise, he could have meant “after dark”.  “The doors were locked”.  The Greek tells us that the doors were “shut”, as opposed to “locked”.  Now, the Lord had appeared very early in the morning to Mary Magdalene, who had gone to the tomb.  If that appearance occurred around dawn, then he appeared to his Apostles about twelve hours later.  While this may seem strange, we can look at it in a broader way: The Lord came to earth a little more than two thousand years ago, and he suffered, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, promising that he would come again at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead.  The Church has waited now all this time for his return, and she will continue to wait in patience until he does return.  The Apostles were in this position after Mary Magdalene announced that the Lord Jesus had risen.  They waited and prayed.  Certainly, they kept the doors shut “out of fear of the Jews” just as the Church has always existed under the threat or the reality of persecution and protects herself and her members with prayer.  When the Lord did come, it was without warning.  One moment he was not there, and the next he was.  It is just as he had told them before he was arrested: “For as lightning comes out of the east and appears even into the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24, 27).  The Lord found them waiting for him, just as we are to wait for his coming: “Watch ye therefore, because you know not at what hour your Lord will come” (Matthew 24, 42).  And to those who wait for him, he will say, “Peace be with you.”  The Son of God’s words, unlike ours, are effectual: they cause actions.  Thus, he put his Apostles at peace.  And so the just, at the end of time, will be at peace, seeing that their Lord has come.  The wicked, on the other hand, will react differently.  They will be as the guards of the Lord’s tomb when they saw the Angel: “And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror and became as dead men” (Matthew 28, 4).

On the last day, the Lord will tell his faithful, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).  But it is not yet the end.  To help bring about the end, the Lord says to the Apostles, here: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The Gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth before the Lord comes again.  Jesus did not leave the Apostles powerless to accomplish this, but he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son came upon them and made them capable of carrying out the Lord’s command.  The Apostles do, in fact, receive the Holy Spirit at this time, but in a way that also points to the full reception of the Holy Spirit and his gifts on the Jewish feast of Pentecost.

While we await the second coming of the Lord, we who belong to him in the Church are united together and we work to spread the Gospel with great zeal, that the great day of the Lord May come soon.