I am with you always

But though the first Easter and the first Pentecost may seem at times far distant, Our Risen Lord and the Holy Spirit are not far distant.  Before Jesus returned to Heaven at his Ascension, he said to the Apostles, “And remember, I am with you always…” (NRSV, Matthew 28:20).  And that same Jesus, who was crucified and was raised from the dead, is the living Lord of the present who is with us now, and especially in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever.  And the Holy Spirit, whom he gave to the Apostles and to the Church on the first Pentecost, he still gives to us through his Church today.  For at every Baptism and Confirmation, God the Holy Spirit comes into our souls as surely as he came to the souls of the Apostles and the first Christians.  That is why the Church, though old, is always new, for Jesus and the Holy Spirit are given anew to her members in every generation.