Douay Rheims Haydock
John
20 : 18 Mary Magdalene cometh, and telleth the disciples; I have seen the Lord, and these things he said to me.
19 *Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews: Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them; Peace be to you.
20 And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands, and his side. The disciples, therefore, were glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 He said therefore to them again; Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.
22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23 *Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose you shall retain, they are retained.
Vs 22 : Ver. 22. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. It was said, (John vii. 39.) that the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not glorified. The sense must needs be, that the holy Spirit was not given in that solemn manner, nor with so large an effusion of spiritual gifts and graces, till the day of Pentecost, after Christ’s ascension: but the just, at all times, from the beginning of the world, were sanctified by the grace of the Holy Ghost, as no doubt the apostles were, before this time. Now at this present, he gave them the power of forgiving sins. (Witham) — Some say, that our Saviour did not then confer the Holy Ghost on his disciples, but only prepared them for the receiving of the Holy Ghost. But surely we may understand, that even then they received some portion of spiritual grace, the power, not indeed of raising the dead, and working other miracles, but of forgiving sins. (St. Chrysostom, hom. lxxxv. in Joan.) — St. Cyril of Alexandria, speaking of the remission of sins, promised in this text, asks, “How then, or why, did Christ impart to his disciples a power, which belongs to the divinity alone? It seemed good to him, that they, who had within themselves his divine Spirit, should likewise possess the power of forgiving sins, and of retaining such as they judged expedient; that Holy Spirit, according to his good pleasure, forgiving and retaining, through the ministry of men.” (In Joan. lib. xii. chap. 1.)
Notice by this passage that Jesus created a Hierarchy - In Holy Orders Priests have that same power today - to bind or loose Sins - and it is by the Power of the Holy Spirit that they have it
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