“…where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (RSV, Matthew 18:20)

It is St Luke who tells us that Our Lord appeared to his Apostles at intervals during the 40 days following his Resurrection on Easter Day.  As a result of those appearances the Apostles were convinced by the conclusive evidence of their own eyes and ears of two facts.

First, that his body which had been nailed to the Cross and laid to rest in the tomb, had been transformed and raised to a supernatural level of existence, and that in that new and higher life he could now appear to them at will, not as a ghost, but in the undiminished fullness of his personality.

And secondly, they knew that, whether they saw him or not, he was with them.  So on Low Sunday, doubting Thomas found that the Risen Christ knew all about his declared disbelief of Easter Day.  “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing” (RSV, John 20:27).