As we approach the end of Eastertide, we realize that for the early followers of Christ, especially Peter and Paul, Eastertide never ended. The risen Christ was very much with them and in them as they faced the vicissitudes involved in spreading the Good News. For Paul, it meant fighting for the cause even in captivity, taking his case to Felix and to Festus, the Roman governors, and then to King Herod Agrippa II and finally on to Rome. Festus involved Agrippa because he was incapable of seeing the real issues involved : - "a dead man called Jesus whom Paul alleged to be alive." (Acts:25:20) is how he saw it. However, this was the Resurrection issue which Paul was prepared to appeal to the Roman courts for, and eventually even to die for.

With Peter, we are told that Jesus predicted the kind of death by which he would give glory to God. Before that, though, Jesus charged Simon Peter with a weighty mission, emphasized in the way Peter was addressed - "Simon son of John" - the very way Jesus called him when He first met him (John:1:42) and appointed him the 'Rock' of the Church. On this final occasion, Peter was entrusted with the whole flock of His followers to feed and to tend, after having declared three times his humbled and sorrowing love, now grown to include love of the sheep to be tended and served. For Peter, son of John, the crucified and risen Christ was to be remembered and served thus until his own death on a cross.