One startling new reality for the disciples-become-apostles was the abundance of the gift of grace which continually energized, motivated, filled, blessed, sweetened, their day in day out lives. The writers of the books of the New Testament regularly acknowledged it, not just as a standard letter-writing salutation with all the warmth of a ‘To Whom It May Concern,’ but with live-edge relief and in-their-face, can’t-breathe-without-it gratitude. Jesus’ departure back to the Father and the subsequent arrival of the Holy Spirit initiated an era of ambassadorship through those men, the likes of which they couldn’t possibly have dreamed.  On the outside they remained as before, but on the inside, they went through the same ‘all things are made new’ radical transformation as the one through which Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, empowers his Church today.