John 20:22 – And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
We all have breath that physically pours out of us when we breathe, in the same way the breath of God pours out from the Lord but His breath is life. His breath is His very life and enlivens everyone who He touches. The breath of God is life and is the third person of the blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This person flows out from the Father and the Son, they are not separate but are one. Just as our breath flows from our very being, God Himself flows out from God Himself. This is part of the mystery of the Trinity.
When man fell into sin this is the part of us that died, we became separated from God. He was no longer part of us but we walked in darkness, void of the life of God. Jesus prayed that we would be one, like He is one with the Father. This oneness is what happens when the breath of God enters our life. This is what happened that day that Christ was raised from the dead, this resurrection life, the very essence and breath of God entered inside the disciples and made them one with the Father and the Son. Here is how Cyril of Alexandria described this moment.
“The Son, sharing the same nature as God the Father, has the Spirit in the same manner that the Father would be understood to have the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit is not something added or which comes from without, for it would be naïve—even insane—to hold such an opinion. But God the Father has the Spirit, just as each one of us has our own breath within us that pours forth from the innermost parts of the body. This is why Christ physically breathed on his disciples, showing that as the breath proceeds physically from the human mouth, so too does Christ, in a manner befitting God, pour forth the [Spirit] from the divine essence.”
It’s hard to explain this moment of life that we experience when we receive the Spirit into our lives. I suppose the closest comparison is what happens when a child is born and takes his first breath. Suddenly he begins to breath and he is suddenly living in a brand new world.
