5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Paschaltide, or Eastertide, lasts for seven weeks. At the beginning, we hear of the accounts of the Resurrection and Appearances of the Risen Lord to His apostles and disciples. After this initial period, we hear of the teaching which our Lord gave to His Apostles to prepare them for the coming of the Kingdom of God with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

     For forty days after His resurrection, St. Luke tells us, He continued to appear to them to help them to understand why it was necessary for Him to die and so to rise again to a new and undying life; and how they should live the Gospel after He had left their sight at His Ascension. Only when the Holy Spirit would be given to them at Pentecost would they fully understand the truth about the Christ that He was now teaching them. Only after Pentecost would they be able to leave the Upper Room where they gathered so timidly after the Resurrection, in order to proclaim with great boldness and joy the new life and freedom brought to mankind by Christ.                                  ~ Fr. Paul Dobson