Jesus said, “…remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (NRSV, Matthew 28:20)

How impossible it is for us to put ourselves in the place of the disciples and holy women that first Good Friday. In a few short hours all their hopes had been wrecked and their faith stretched to breaking point.

For the past three years their whole lives had been centred on our Blessed Lord. He had literally been their Master because they had throughout that time acted on his instructions, going where he sent them, and doing as he ordered. He alone had given their life its meaning so that, without him, everything would be empty and purposeless.

And now it was all over. Their beloved Lord and Master, for whom they had declared themselves ready to give all that they had, to go to prison and to death, had been nailed to the cross of shame and had died in agony. As for the disciples and the part they had played, there was nothing but desertion and denial to look back upon, and the opportunity of making amends had been lost for ever.

So it was back once again to their boats and their nets, for the death and burial of Christ had closed a chapter in their lives as surely as the stone had sealed the tomb.

And then the incredible thing happened. Jesus Christ is alive again, he has risen from the dead. Mary Magdalene has seen him, and Peter, and two other disciples. When he appeared to the rest in the Upper Room the swift succession of events left them stunned with joy. Here was no ghost, but a real person. Although his body had marvellously changed since the tomb closed upon it, he was the same Jesus Christ they had always known, and during the Great Forty Days that followed Easter they realised that henceforward, though they could not see him, they would never be parted from him again.

Their plans for resuming their former occupations were pushed aside and forgotten and in their place a more sublime prospect was unfolding. “…you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” and “…remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (NRSV, Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:20). So the last chapter of the Gospel became the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

Yet this joy at having Jesus with them once again was, they knew, to be followed one day by a greater joy. When their labours were ended, there awaited them an endless life spent with him, in his visible and glorified Presence. At times St Paul was impatient for the fulfilment of this complete and lasting bliss. Though anxious to continue his missionary work, he wrote, “I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…” (NRSV, Philippians 1:23).

This consciousness of Christ’s presence and support and the future joy of seeing him again, was the source of the Apostles’ reckless gaiety. When flogged, they departed rejoicing; when flung into an underground dungeon they burst irrepressibly into song in the middle of the night.

And this Easter joy, which they possessed in so large a measure, is for us also. We have not undergone the desolation of Good Friday, but we can know the gladness which comes from the Risen Christ. He is the escort and guide of all faithful souls. Unseen, yet ever present he accompanies and supports us on our pilgrimage from day to day, so that our religion and every part of our life that it touches is transformed into a personal relationship with him.

The Christian Faith is not a dreary attempt to obey a list of rules, but a life of pleasing our Blessed Lord with loyalty and love, not as servants only but as friends. And, as we give ourselves willingly to this cheerful, generous obedience while we see him not, we, like the Apostles, “…run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (NRSV, Hebrews 12:1,2).

The Apostles, however, were conscious not only of his Presence with them but also of his power within them. They knew that they were animated by his Divine Spirit. As he was stronger than evil and death, so in his power were they. In Gethsemane they had quailed and broken in the face of temptation and mortal danger: but after Our Lord’s Resurrection, with his Spirit within them, they boldly fulfilled the promises they had made to go to prison and to death for his sake.

This new life of theirs was centred on his Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” he had told them, and those “who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” (NRSV, John 6:56,54).

So week by week they met for the breaking of bread, the Sunday Eucharist, in memory of his Resurrection on the first day of the week. For the Eucharist does not centre on the memory of a dead Christ, but round the risen Presence of him who lives, and was dead, and is alive for ever and ever (see Revelation 1:18). It is in the Blessed Sacrament that we, like the Apostles, find the Risen Christ. It is there that he comes to his own. No wonder the early Christians risked their lives in order to make their Communions and receive the Risen and Ascended Body of their Divine Master and thus be united to him. And as they experienced in their own lives his superiority over temptation and sin, so also did they, like him, pass triumphantly through death into the glory of eternal life beyond.

As we journey through life there are many evil influences, many falls into sin, many trials, many sorrows which threaten to drag us down and separate us from God before we face the last enemy of all. But with the support of the Risen Christ beside us and in the living power of his Sacramental Presence within, we can take heart and press on steadily through every temptation and trial until we reach that land where those, who have already overcome, now share his Risen life.