Encountering Easter on the side of the Ascension

The dramatic conversion of Saul is unique, yet normative.  Like us, Saul didn't have the privilege of knowing Jesus in the flesh.  Later in life, he lamented that he had "missed out" on the first hand experience of Peter, James and John.  Saul (Paul) needed to appropriate the life of the risen Jesus in the same way we do, through the Holy Spirit mediated through the Church.