Returning to Galilee

It's already two weeks since the Easter Triduum began! So there's been time, in between so much else, for trying to read and digest just some of the Easter reflections and homilies which appeared in my social media feeds. And I have especially been reflecting on Pope Francis' homily at the Easter Vigil, in which he focused on Galilee, as the place for each of us where our love story with Jesus began, and our first call took place... to relive that moment, that situation, that experience in which we met the Lord, experienced his love and received a radiantly new way of seeing ourselves, the world around us and the mystery of life itself... 

To rise again, to start anew, to take up the journey, we always need to return to Galilee, that is, to go back, not to an abstract or ideal Jesus, but to the living, concrete and palpable memory of our first encounter with him. Yes, to go forward we need to go back, to remember; to have hope, we need to revive our memory. This is what we are asked to do: to remember and go forward! If you recover that first love, the wonder and joy of your encounter with God, you will keep advancing. So remember, and keep moving forward... 

Each of us, according to Pope Francis, knows where our Galilee is located. Each of us knows the place of his or her interior resurrection, that beginning and foundation, the place where things changed. Except that when I look back, I can see more than one Galilee! There is a pivotal moment: an encounter in which God revealed something of the immensity and strength of his unlimited, unconditional love; in which I knew that I was called to love back, and to love widely, as a proof of this love. This, undoubtedly, was my beginning and foundation, my place and moment of interior resurrection. But - dramatic and unexpected as it was - this encounter did not happen completely out of nowhere! 

I was already in Galilee, because Love had already drawn me there... Because Love, known since childhood, although ignored for a few years, had begun to enchant and beckon me back along this road. I was already in Galilee because there had already been meetings and meeting places... 'smaller' Galilees in a love story stretching back over years - including, even, a couple of religious experiences at a time when I was far from being religious, and did not recognise them as such. 

I was already there, on this holy ground; in this graced place where Jesus already awaited me, and came to meet me.

And you: what and where are the moments in which you have met Jesus, experienced his love and received a radiantly new way of seeing...?

We cannot leave this in the past; the Risen Lord invites us to return there to celebrate Easter... He wants to illuminate your sacred memory, your most beautiful memory, and to make you relive that first encounter with him. Remember and keep moving forward. Return to him and rediscover the grace of God’s resurrection within you! Return to Galilee. Return to your Galilee.