First, we see that Jesus breathes on His apostles in the upper
room. The only other time God breathed on man was when He created
him and breathed life into his body. Genesis 2:7. When God breathes
on man, a transformation takes place. Here, the apostles were
transformed into "other Christs," filled with the Holy Spirit and
endowed with Jesus' divine authority to forgive sins. Thus, Matthew
writes that God gave the authority to forgive sins to men. Matt.
9:8. We also note that Jesus makes no distinction between very
serious sin (called "mortal sin") and lesser sins (called "venial
sin"). See 1 John 5:16-17. By virtue of God's mercy, the apostles
are able to forgive all sins.
We also note that the apostles were not only given the authority to
forgive sin, but to retain sin as well. What does this mean? This
means that the apostles were given the gift of rendering judgment
on the sincerity of the penitent, and binding the penitent to works
of penance in order for him to be forgiven of his sin. If, in the
apostles' judgment, the penitent was not sincere, or should be
required to perform acts of penance in reparation for his sins, the
apostles could retain the sin (withhold forgiveness) until their
conditions were satisfied. While such authority is reserved to God
alone, Christ shared this authority with the apostles.
Of course, Jesus' gift of authority described in John 20:22-23 only
makes sense if the penitent orally confesses the sins to the
apostles. The apostles were not given the gift of mind reading,
and, even if they were, forgiveness of sin would still depend on
the sinner's desire to be forgiven (the sinner would express that
desire by confessing his sins to the priest). If oral confession
were not required, the way that Jesus granted the gift to the
apostles would not make any sense
Why Jesus would grant such an incredible gift to the apostolic age,
and then remove the gift from future generations. The answer, of
course, is that He didn't remove it. The gift was preserved through
priestly succession by the sacrament of ordination as Christ
intended, which the Scriptures often refer to as "the laying on of
hands." Acts 1:20; 6:6; 13:3; 8:18; 9:17; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22; 2
Timothy 1:6.
History and Bible supprts us....
