A Franciscan Gospel Reflection for the Feast of Pentecost 2026 is here for your prayer. Are there parts of your life that you keep locked away?
The Gospel background and reflection questions are prepared and distributed by Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Anne Marie Lom, OSF and Joe Thiel, as edited from Reflections authored by Fr. Paul Gallagher, OFM. The excerpts from the Sunday readings are prepared by Joe Thiel. To read or download the complete pdf with excerpts for your prayer, please click here: Franciscan Gospel Reflection May 24 2026
Photos: Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity St. Francis Chapel; St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish St. John the Baptist Church, Waunakee, Wisconsin
John 20:19-23 (For the feast day)
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “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.”
Background:
The second Gospel text for Pentecost is also from John’s Gospel. The text presents a different kind of experience of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples than is found in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11 (which is the first reading for Masses during the day). Here in the Gospel, even though the disciples have gathered in fear, they are sent out just as the Father sent Jesus himself. They have real reason to fear that those who arrested Jesus and crucified him may be plotting to move against them, too. However, the presence of the risen Lord is not impeded by the physical restraint of a locked door, nor by their fears. The crucified Jesus stands in their midst and greets them with peace. This greeting of peace is also a prayer for health, prosperity, and all good that comes with the end times. Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit–an action that mirrors God breathing life into Adam in Genesis. The disciples receive the power to both bind and forgive sins, an expression that names the two extremes but is intended to communicate the full range of power between the two extremes. In John’s Gospel, sin is defined as the refusal to accept Jesus and his teaching. By asking the disciples to be agents of forgiveness, Jesus is commissioning them to be agents to reach out to those who have rejected Jesus and his teachings. The text seems to use the energy that is present when two opposites are brought together to describe the new energy that is released by God upon the disciples.
The modern reader may associate the forgiving of sins with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, in the early Church, forgiveness of sin was associated with Baptism. The Reconciliation that Jesus is commissioning the disciples to be about is much larger than the personal forgiveness of individual sins. It would seem to be about the kind of reconciliations that Jesus brought to the ten lepers when he told them to go show themselves to the priests so that they could be reinstated into the community, or when he spoke to the woman at the well and the whole community was transformed by her testimony. Forgiving in this sense seems to be about restoring the fullness of the relationship.
Reflection Questions:
- Do you lock doors? Do you check to make sure they are locked at night or when you leave?
- Are there parts of your life that you keep locked away?
- Have you or someone you know well had the experience of being refused forgiveness by a parent or by someone they loved?
- Where do you encounter your own fears? Which of your fears are you grateful for? Which of your fears would you like to be free of? Do you fear God?
- In the text, the disciples thought that they had gathered in safety behind locked doors, and they discovered that they were leaving empowered by God to act, even though to do so made them more vulnerable. Has God ever worked that way in your life?
- When have you been aware of the Jesus who was standing in your midst? How would you recognize him?
- How do you experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in your own life? Have there been times when the Holy Spirit seemed to be present in a dramatic way, and times when the Spirit has been gently present to you… as gently present as your own breath?
- In the Gospel, Jesus breathed on the disciples the breath of life, and told them they had the power to forgive and to bind sins. Can you take some time to talk to God about God’s desire to give this power to his disciples, and to you?
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