Akron Pastor Ministers to the Homebound
Pentecost marks the beginning of the Church. In John?s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples and says, ??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" (Jn 20:21-23).
Jesus breathed life into the Church by sending the Holy Spirit. This concept of breathing life into something can also be seen in Genesis 2:7, ?the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.? As in Genesis, Jesus gave life to the Church through his breath.
Jesus also passed on his mission to the disciples through His breath. This message is conveyed in Fr. Michael Williamson?s homily seen on the ?TV Mass? for shut-ins, June 8, 2014 on WJW-TV FOX8.
Fr. Mike explained, ?His mission of teaching, preaching, proclaiming, healing, serving, and reconciling would now be the mission of His disciples? and this is the moment the Church was born.
Fr. Mike, pastor of St. Matthew?s Parish in Akron, Ohio, reminded us that this gospel reading returns to the beginning of the Easter season; back to the same room the disciples hid in fear after Jesus? death. Fr. Mike indicated that this gospel reading occurs before the story of Thomas refusing to believe in the resurrection until he could see Jesus. This means when Jesus breathed on the disciples, Thomas was not with them. Fr. Mike explains that even though Jesus did not breathe on him, he was touched by the Spirit, just the same as the other disciples.
Similar to Thomas, we were not physically present when Jesus breathed on his disciples, but the Holy Spirit still enters our lives, guiding us to be disciples of Christ and members of the Church.
Fr. Mike?s full homily can be seen below:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/ZTbBVQjZNKA[/youtube]
Fr. Mike was ordained a priest in 1986 and has been the pastor at St. Matthew?s Parish in Akron, Ohio since 2002. He served almost seven years as a member of the Diocesan Mission Team in El Salvador. Fr. Mike appears regularly on the ?TV Mass? and will preside over the mass this Sunday June 8.
The ?TV Mass? can be seen on WJW-TV FOX8 every Sunday at 6:00 a.m. and Cox Communications Cable (Ch. 45) every Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The audio of the ?TV Mass? can be heard on WELW-1330AM every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and WERE-1490AM every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
