Some five months after this year's celebration of the Easter mysteries, today's reading from St Paul reminds us of the core message of our Christian faith: "Christ has been raised from the dead". This means that there is no place where the power of God in Christ has not been: no place so helpless or lost that the power of God in Christ cannot find and offer hope; no human situation so beyond redemption that the power of God in Christ cannot change and be effective; no person living a life so deadened that the power of God in Christ cannot revivify with life overflowing for the good of others. Paul says, "If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable" (1 Cor. 15:19). Even the dreaded barrier of death itself is no obstacle to the power of God's love in Christ.

Following the Resurrection Jesus continues to "make His way through the towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God." The Risen Lord is present and active in the very places we live and work (our "towns and villages"). We, women and men today, go along with Him, witnesses in our own lives to the power of the Resurrection.