Episode 878: St. Narcissus & Pray, Hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless

Matthew 28:18-19 records that Jesus said to the Apostles, "And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." That word power is all Exousia, all authority. He therefore hands that authority over to the Apostles. "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Jesus authorizes, he exousia, the Apostles to make disciples, baptize, and catechize. All the Gospels pretty much say the same thing. But St. John's gospel added one more thing. After breathing on them and giving them the Holy Spirit, he says this:
Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)
Remember when I said Only God can forgive sin? And because Jesus is God and Man He was able to give himself the authority, as God, to forgive sins on earth while he was in His body. But now at the ascension he is about to leave. He is leaving his body the Church (see I Corinthians 12) behind with the authority to do what He did as Man. And one of those things he gave authority to do is to forgive sins, or retain them.
Let me put it this way. In the Gospels, Jesus gave the Apostles a preview of what he would look like in his heavenly body during the Transfiguration. I believe that at the ascension they saw again the transfiguration. But this time he was taken into the clouds and into heaven. His Earthly body transfigured permanently.