“You will see him [in Galilee], as he told you.”
From Mark 19:7, the Gospel for the Easter Vigil Mass.
Galilee is the place where the disciples were first called, where everything began! The Risen Jesus commands them to return there, to return to the place where they were originally called. Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. He called them, and they left everything and followed him.
To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory. To re-read everything – Jesus’s preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal – to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.
For each of us, too, there is a Galilee” at the origin of our journey with Jesus. “To go to Galilee” means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a powerful yet a good and gentle joy.
Tonight, each of us can ask: “What is my Galilee? Where is my Galilee?” Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it? Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me! Tell me what my Galilee is, for I know that I want to return there to encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy.…
“Galilee of the Gentiles!” Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church! Intense desire of encounter! Let us be on our way to Galilee!
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