MANY OF US HAVE suffered in our lives and sometimes we carry physical and emotional scars from those wounds- a stitched cut, an injury healed but still visible; perhaps some form of PTSD- an emotional reminder of trauma.
The ancient Persian sage Rumi concluded that woundedness is how God’s spirit dwells in us: I said: What about my heart? He said: Tell me what you hold inside it? I said: Pain and sorrow. He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you. Today is the celebration of the Holy Spirit gifted to us through the open wounds of our Savior. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, in the words of Jesus “the wind that blows where it wills (Jn. 3:8),” the divine gift that continually renews and sustains the world.
John’s Gospel account (Jn. 20:19-23) does not focus on Pentecost but an earlier gift of the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday evening. On the night of the Resurrection, the disciples are hiding behind locked doors in
fear. Even after hearing Mary Magdalene’s testimony and learning of the empty tomb, they are paralyzed by guilt, shame and anxiety. They had abandoned Jesus. They feared the authorities, but likely also feared facing the Lord, himself. Yet, Jesus pursues them despite the locked doors and immediately offers mercy: “Peace be with you (v.19).” There is no rebuke, no condemnation. Instead,Jesus comes with forgiveness and peace.
Shalom, the peace Jesus offers, embodies reconciliation, wholeness and restored communion with God. Jesus then shows the disciples His wounds. These wounds are open and fully visible even in His glorified body. Jesus forever carries the reminder of His divine love through those wounds, the source of that peace “which the world cannot give (Jn. 14:27)” His peace flows directly from his sacrificial suffering and victorious Resurrection.
John’s Gospel presents this encounter as one continuous act of mercy. Jesus shows His wounds, offers peace, breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and gives them authority to forgive sins. These actions are sacramental and inseparable. The gift of the Holy Spirit is directly connected to forgiveness, reconciliation, healing and liberation; all fruits of the sacrament of Penance.
The disciples themselves needed that healing forgiveness. They were wounded by their own sins of abandonment. Jesus meets them in those wounds to heal them. He breathes the Holy Spirit upon them, just as God breathed the Spirit into Adam at Creation and each of us in baptism. In this moment, Christ inaugurates a new Creation through mercy and forgiveness. We, too, carry wounds caused by our own sins and by the sins of others. Many people live burdened by fear, anxiety, anger and alienation. Our risen Savior still enters locked hearts and speaks the same words: “Peace be with you (Jn. 20:19, 21).” He continues to heal us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, especially in the sacrament of Penance.
Finally, Jesus sends the disciples into the world: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you (v.21).” The disciples who hid in fear are transformed by the Holy Spirit into courageous witnesses of the Gospel and messengers of divine mercy. The Holy Spirit is given not only for our peace and forgiveness, but so that we may share that peace with others. Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit still “renews the face of the earth (Ps.104:30)” through the Church. We are sent into a wounded and anxious world to proclaim that peace which flows from the wounds of the risen Christ. The liberating wind of the Holy Spirit blows peacefully in the sacrament of Penance.
In our Pentecost joy, may we recommit to this Holy Spirit-infused sacrament, the antidote for our woundedness, both for wounds received and wounds given.