By Msgr. Charles Fink.

But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, April 24th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the death of Pope Francis, plans for Saturday's papal funeral, the conclave that will begin soon after, as well as other issues in the global Church. Check your local listings for the channel in your area. Shows are usually available shortly after first airing on the EWTN YouTube channel.

Now for today's column...

I wonder if it's really possible for us to understand the incredible mix of emotions Jesus' disciples, men and women, experienced on that first Easter morning. We really have no frame of reference, do we?

Sure, we may know the joy of finding a beloved pet we had lost and never expected to see again. We may have experienced a reprieve from an apparent death sentence after successful medical treatment of a life-threatening illness. We might even have witnessed a seemingly miraculous cure and felt overwhelmed with gratitude to God that our prayers had been answered. All of these things happen, if not routinely, then at least from time to time, and exist within the realm of possibility.

But what Jesus' friends and followers experienced on Easter morning and the days thereafter was impossible. They had seen him scourged to within an inch of his life, then crucified, then pierced through the heart with a soldier's lance, finally laid in a tomb. There is no record before or since of anybody's having endured all that, only to come back, scars, wounds and all, but fresh as a daisy, more alive than ever, capable of things no ordinary living person was ever capable of.

Is it any wonder that it took them some time to process what they were seeing and hearing and touching? Are we shocked that they found it hard to believe their own eyes, that they thought maybe they were seeing a ghost or an apparition of some sort? What they seemed to see wasn't just amazing; it was impossible! It took a little time to put it all together, to remember that with God all things are possible, that Jesus himself had predicted what they were experiencing, that the impossible had indeed happened. And that, after all, it wasn't too good to be true. And they weren't crazy.

We know they came to this improbable conclusion because instead of going back to fishing or tax-collecting and to their families, the Twelve, minus Judas, not long before trembling in fear and inclined to flee for their lives, each began to preach Jesus risen from the dead to Jews, Romans, anyone who would listen, no matter how hostile the audience. Each had years and decades to change his mind, to say it had all been a tragic mistake, but none did. All but John, the youngest, died a martyr's death. John died in exile in his nineties on the Isle of Patmos.

Moreover, what they taught about sex and marriage, love of enemies, and the dignity of the poor was unlike anything anyone had ever taught before. It was received with the same incredulity and hostility as their message that Jesus was the Savior of the world, raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father.

This risen Jesus appeared to Saul, a rabid persecutor of Christians, and turned him into St. Paul, zealous missionary and author of more than a quarter of the pages of the New Testament. Over the centuries, he appeared to others: to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to reveal the love of his Sacred Heart, to St. Faustina Kowalska to manifest the depth of the Divine Mercy. He spoke to St. Francis of Assisi and changed his life. He did the same to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He imprinted His wounds in the flesh of Padre Pio and his mark upon every people and civilization He touched.

It would have been understandable if, way back at the beginning, the Apostles, facing an immense, powerful, often brutal Roman Empire opposed to everything they s...