Today is the second Sunday of Easter and as always happens on this day, we hear the story of Jesus appearing to the Apostles for the first time after the resurrection. We also hear the story of St. Thomas. Today, let us look more closely at Jesus’ appearance.

 The first thing that Jesus does is breathe upon them and give them the power to forgive or retain sins. This is the power of salvation.

 We may have lost an understanding of the mission of the Churcit is the salvation of souls, period. If we are not doing this, we are not fulfilling our mission on the Earth. Everything we do must be rooted in the salvation of souls. Each of us was given this mission at Baptism and the Church was given this mission on Easter Sunday by Jesus.

 We fulfill this mission by acting as Jesus’ agents. What did He do prior to His death and resurrection? He called for people to repent of their sins.

 The fact that Jesus upon meeting his Apostles after the resurrection immediately gives them the power to forgive sins indicates the essential mission of the Church.

The audio of this homily can be found in the upper right of this blog.

 What is the greatest power of the devil? If he cannot teach people that they cannot be forgiven for their sins since the power is ours. That is easy, teach people that there is no such thing as sin and that forgiveness is an old concept and that we do not need to appreciate sin anymore.

 What is sin? It is a refusal to do the will of God. When we cut ourselves off from God, then we cut ourselves off from his wisdom and grace. What does that look like. It looks like calling sin, virtue.

 What does it look like? So the state of North Carolina is suffering economic sanctions from other US government organizations, including the State of New York because they will not approve a law that says anyone can choose whatever bathroom they feel matches their gender today. So we are going to tell people that they cannot spend government money in North Carolina because of their bathroom policy. When did North Carolina become Cuba and when did Cuba become North Carolina?. Do we understand what lack of wisdom looks like?

 If you do not have the wisdom to understand the truth, you do not have the wisdom to understand sin and if you do not understand sin, its poison is still there and hijacks your understanding of the world around you.

 One of the questions I get as a priest and I even got it on the David Brudnoy show many years ago, shows how much people misunderstand this. If a terrorist comes into my confessional and confesses to me that he is going to blow up a building, is it true that I cannot tell anyone. The short answer is yes, but the long answer is that a terrorist would not come into my confessional because a terrorist, void of wisdom and grace, does not understand terrorism is a sin. Even we all know that it is and any terrorist who dies in the act of terrorism wakes up in Hell.

Our mission is to call people to conversion and to call ourselves to conversion and to seek to grow in holiness. We can only do that by recognizing sin and seeking forgiveness for our sins.

People will argue all day long that sin is not sin, the issue is that if they continue in sin, it poisons their lives takes away their ability to discern what is true and what is false.

 I remember in my days long before I returned to the Church, when I was living far away from God, my whole world was lost in the haze of drinking to excess. All my decisions were rooted in living that lifestyle. Later when I quit drinking, I decided that I would go back to drinking once I experienced sober all there is to experience that God gives to us that is not sin. I will never go back to drinking again, there is still too much to experience. That is why, by the way, I went skydiving. I never planned at that time to ride in the back of a pickup through the Ecuadorian Andes, which I did many years later, that was God’s plan. Prior to that my whole world was wrapped up in alcohol, how many others have a world wrapped up in drugs, sex, bitterness, greed, and more. Their decisions are twisted because they are not in touch with wisdom and grace.

 However, remember the mission of the Church is to forgive sins, therefore, what we do here is call people to repent of their sins, by living our lives as Catholics. Our whole reason for existence is the salvation of souls. We seek to help us to grow in holiness and lead others to conversion and salvation. The only way is through the forgiveness of sins, which is the door through which we lead people to the Father through Christ.

 Any other mission we may have, including social justice, is subservient to this one mission the forgiveness of sins. So we need to call people to the wisdom and grace so that they may recognize what sin is. We need to recognize sin in ourselves and turn from it. We need to lead others to do the same.

 We have a lot of work to do here in our parish because over the last fifty years in North America there has a been a great loss of the sense of sin, not just among the people. It is also among the hierarchy, I am sure you have seen Spotlight,which is about sin and people who turned a blind eye to it. If you have seen the movie, by the way, it indicts not just the hierarchy but the entire culture here in Massachusetts.

 I truly believe that one of the greatest problems that led to the crisis portrayed in Spotlight is a lack of a sense of evil. When we lose that we lose sin and when we lose sin, we lose our salvation.

Jesus came that all may be saved, but in order to be saved you need to be forgiven of your sins and so do all around you.

 When I was helping out at a parish locally, members of the local parish rooted in a movement that wanted to change the Church would come to me and tell me how that place made them feel good. That is wonderful, but that is not the mission of the Catholic parish, it is to help us grow in holiness and to lead others to do the same. We grow in holiness by turning from sin and seeking to do God’s will.

 Speaking of movies, you know the kind of stuff you see in horror movies about possession and other forms of demonic influence. That stuff is part of the job of a priest to deal with, and some well trained Catholic laity. Have I dealt with those situations? Yes. Do I like to? No. So, knowing the power of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is greater than a hundred exorcisms, I encourage people who manifest this stuff that you may see in movies, to go to confession. I can name you the sins before they confess them. Why? Because certain sins are doorways to the demonic and turning from them closes the doorway. Our job is to help people close the doorway and open themselves to the other door. Who is Christ. That is the very power given to the Church at the resurrection of Jesus.

 Jesus gives the Church the power to forgive sins right after His resurrection that means, leading people away from sin and to holiness is our mission, every day.

 Look around you and you will see that we have not been as faithful to our mission as we should, at least not here in the Western World.

 Never forget Jesus declared our role is first in calling people to repent and to lead them to salvation through the forgiveness of sins before anything else.

 God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is member of the Segundo Elo  of the Canção Nova Community. He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MAand is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube.  You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook