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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me use my power to forgive people who are hurtful! Amen.

After Jesus died, the Apostles hid in a locked room to get away from those who killed Him. Suddenly, Jesus was in the room with them! "Peace be with you," He said, showing them the cuts in His hands and side to prove it was really Him. "Receive the Holy Spirit," He added. "If you forgive someone's sins, they are forgiven; if you don't, they are not forgiven."

Power is not something many kids think about. You may feel like you don't have much power! Adults control where you live and when you go to bed. You're often told how you're spending your day and even what you'll eat.

In this week's Gospel (John 20:19-23), though, Jesus talks about a kind of power everyone has: the power to forgive other people.

After Jesus came back to life at Easter, He went to find the Apostles. Being the Son of God, He knew where they were hiding out. Jesus needed to talk with His friends.

First, Jesus proved who He was. Then, He did something astonishing: He gave the Apostles the power to forgive sins. After all the time they had spent with Jesus, He trusted that they would understand when someone was sorry for being hurtful and deserved God's forgiveness.

Jesus gave His closest friends the power to decide who was forgiven. Of course, He wanted everyone who was really sorry to be forgiven for their sins! We continue that today by going to reconciliation: We confess our sins and get forgiveness, so we are starting fresh.

The Apostles, like today's priests, were given the power to represent God in forgiving sins. But even a kid has the power to be forgiving. Think about a mistake you made that upset someone else so much, you couldn't make it right: You probably felt terribly guilty!

The person you hurt had the power to relieve your suffering by forgiving you. You have that power, too: You can forgive people who hurt you, or you can hang onto the hurt and try to make them suffer for what they did.

Forgiveness is power. How will you use yours?[[In-content Ad]]

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