St. John locates the giving of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s death, followed by his breathing this same Spirit on the Apostles on Easter Day. On Golgotha, according to St. John, Jesus cried out: I thirst! (19:28). In accordance with John’s habitual style, this bears a double meaning. Jesus suffered a tormenting physical thirst. More deeply, he thirsted to give us the Spirit, whose image is living water welling up to eternal life (cf. 4:14; 7:38). John’s account of the moment of Jesus’ death also bears a double meaning. He said: it is accomplished, and bowing his head, – as our translation has it – he breathed his last. But more literally: he handed over the Spirit.
As the Father sent me, so am I sending you (20:21). That is, from this moment, the mission of the disciples is to be a continuation or extension of his own divine mission. They are the ones who will now bear the divine life in the world; they will glorify the Father; they will draw all men to God, through Jesus; they will love, even as they have been loved, “to the end” (13:1).
When he had said this he breathed on them saying: Receive the Holy Spirit (20:22). Jesus breathed on his disciples the breath of God, the breath of heaven, his risen breath, the Holy Spirit, Life itself. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. That is, henceforth you are to do divine things, things that only God can do. Or: henceforth God will carry out his work – I will
carry out my work – through you. And whose sins you retain, they are retained. The power I now entrust to you is awesome indeed. Not the trivial, temporary, earthly power of Kings and Armies, but power for salvation, for peace with God, for everlasting life: or not.