To whom you forgive your sins, they will be forgiven, showing to them what kind of grace-filled power is granted to them" (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 86).

Earlier, when the Apostle Peter said to Jesus in the name of all the Apostles:

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus answered him,

... and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:16, 19). Then Jesus only promised Peter to give him this authority; but now He gave it, and not only to Peter, but also to the rest of the Apostles.

On the Property of the Body of the Resurrected Jesus

The Evangelist does not say how the Lord left His Apostles after this appearance to them; it must be assumed that He became invisible to them as instantly as He instantly appeared. Throughout the Gospel history, there is only one case when the body of Jesus Christ was not subject to the laws of nature; this incident was His procession across the sea to the Apostles, who were exhausted in a desperate struggle with the furious waves of the sea. As God, He was above all the laws of nature, dominated them, working miracles, but did not obey them; but as a man, He never used His divine power for Himself personally, and if He went on the waters of the sea, it was only to save His disciples. In short, He was the true God and perfect Man, possessing a human body subject to the laws of nature, capable of feeling suffering, subject to death. After the Resurrection of Christ, His body acquired other properties. Unconstrained by space and barriers, Christ instantly appeared and instantly became invisible, despite the fact that He possessed a body with bones that could be touched, which was capable of eating. This proves that Christ was resurrected not only spiritually, by the Spirit, but also bodily; only His body became special. Such a state of the body seems incomprehensible to us. But do we know everything? Is everything clear to us? Is everything accessible to our limited mind? Do we not believe in phenomena (e.g., electricity, X-rays, N-rays, etc.) which we cannot understand, but which we use? What reason can we have to reject the special state of the body of the risen Lord, if reliable witnesses give us indubitable, even if incomprehensible to us, information about it? If we recognize this information as absolutely reliable, then we must believe it as unconditionally as we believe in many phenomena that are incomprehensible to us, the authenticity of which we do not doubt.

Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles, called the Twin, was not present at this appearance of Christ. When he came to them, they hastened to tell him the good news: