Please read the passage before the homily.
It is Easter, the last day of the Easter season, but it is a return to the first Sunday of Easter with the story of the Easter appearance of Jesus to the disciples from John’s gospel.
The doors are closed where the disciples were out of their fear of the Jewish authorities. Just as Jesus had broken the doors of death ag his resurrection, so did Jesus come through the closed doors into the midst of the disciples. His words to them were, “Peace be with you” and “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
We are here together on this Easter-Pentecost day. We profess our faith in the resurrection, and we have received the Holy Spirit. This means that our sins are forgiven, and we need not think that God does not like us.
When Jesus broke through the doors of the house, he broke down to doors of their fear, “Receive the Holy Spirit; you are free to have my peace without worry or fear.”
Jesus breathed on the disciples. The breath of Jesus is the Spirit of Jesus. The words for beath and spirit are often very similar in languages. Respirar means to have breath or spirit. It contains the same spir we find in spirit.
Our bodies breathe our breath or spirit. Jesus breathes his divine breath or spirit over us. Artificial respiration is a process of using one’s breath to help another person breathe. When Jesus breathed upon his disciples, he breathed his divine breath or spirit upon them. Jesus gives us his Spirit so that we can breathe with his life.
Our spirit or breath is the spirit of our life. Without it we die and have no life. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that give life to Jesus. When Jesus breathes it upon us, we receive the spirit of the life of Jesus, and we live like Christ.
It is Easter and Pentecost, the first and last day of the Easter celebration. We have risen with Christ because we have the Spirit of Jesus. Now we can throw open the doors of what has housed us in and go out beyond the house to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus and give the Spirit of Jesus to others everywhere.