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JOHN 
me, so I send you.” 22* And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,m “Receive the holy Spirit. 23* n Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas. 24Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my nger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”o 26Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”p 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your nger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 28* q Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29* Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?r Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Conclusion.* 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book.s 31But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.t
Miniature From the Psalter of Ingeborg of Denmark: Thomas and the Risen One (early 13th century). “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
20:22
In John, the giving of the Holy Spirit takes place not at Pentecost, but on the same day that Jesus rises from the dead. Through this gift of the Spirit, the disciples are empowered to forgive sins. The words of absolution in the Rite of Penance recall this passage: “God, the Father of mercies, / through the death and resurrection of his Son / has reconciled the world to himself / and sent the Holy Spirit among us / for the forgiveness of sins”
(Rite of Penance, 46).
20:24
Most of us identify with “doubting Thomas”—we would like to see with our eyes and touch with our hands, to experience the truth of the resurrection with our senses. But Jesus has called us to be among those blessed ones who have not seen, and yet believe.
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* [20:22] This action recalls Gn 2:7, where God breathed on the rst man and gave him life; just as Adam’s life came from God, so now the disciples’ new spiritual life comes from Jesus. Cf. also the revivi cation of the dry bones in Ez 37. This is the author’s version of Pentecost. Cf. also the note on Jn 19:30.
* [20:23] The Council of Trent de ned that this power to forgive sins is exercised in the sacrament of penance. See Mt 16:19; 18:18.
* [20:28] My Lord and my God: this forms a literary inclusion with the rst verse of the gospel: “and the Word was God.”
* [20:29] This verse is a beatitude on future generations; faith, not sight, matters.
* [20:30–31] These verses are clearly a conclusion to the gospel and express its purpose. While many manuscripts read come to believe, possibly implying a missionary purpose for John’s gospel, a small number of quite early ones read “continue to believe,” suggesting that the
audience consists of Christians whose faith is to be deepened by the book; cf. Jn 19:35.
m. [20:22] Gn 2:7; Ez 37:9; 1 Cor 15:45.
n. [20:23] Mt 16:19; 18:18.
o. [20:25] 1 Jn 1:1.
p. [20:26] 21:14.
q. [20:28] 1:1.
r. [20:29] 4:48; Lk 1:45; 1 Pt 1:8. s. [20:30] 21:25.
t. [20:31] 3:14, 15; 1 Jn 5:13.