Francis’ invitation to all the faithful: “Brothers and sisters, let us follow Jesus to Galilee, meet him and adore him where he awaits each one of us. Having found him, let us recapture the beauty of that moment. He is alive, we proclaim him Lord of our lives, we go to Galilee Let us return, each to his own Galilee, which was one of the first meetings, and rise to a new life!”
Bianca Fraccalvieri – Vatican News
On this Holy Saturday night, the Pope presided over the Easter Vigil, “the mother of all Vigils”. The ceremony began with the Vatican Basilica in darkness, the celebration of light, the blessing of fire and the making of the Paschal candle. After lighting the candle, Francis led the candlelit procession, without chants, until the deacon proclaimed “Lumen Christi” a third time and the basilica’s lights were turned on.
Jesus is waiting for us in Galilee
The ceremony was followed by the Easter Proclamation and Liturgy of the Word. In his homily, the Pope commented on the episode described in Matthew 28, in which the women, upon seeing the empty tomb, change course; Leave the tomb and run to announce a new journey to the disciples: Jesus is risen and Wait for them in Galilee.
In the lives of these women, Easter happened, ie ticket: Literally, they go from a sad path to the grave to a joyful run towards the disciples. We too, entangled in hate, hatred, disappointments, failures, sorrows, walk sadly, not only in personal life, but in social life, dealing with the cancer of corruption, the spread of injustice, the icy wind. of war.
Francisco’s call, then, is for us to do as the women do, that is, to return to Galilee. This means doing two things: first, leaving the closed cenacle, hiding, being open to work, and escaping fear. Walk towards the future. Second, Back to basicsBecause precisely where in Galilee It all started. There the Lord met and called the disciples for the first time. Therefore, to go to Galilee is to return to primordial grace, to regain the memory that regenerates faith, the “memory of the future” for which we are marked by the Risen One.
Jesus is the person of our lives
The Pontiff added that each of us knows his own inner place of resurrection, the initial, founding place where things changed. We cannot leave it in the past, the Risen One calls us to go there to celebrate Easter.
In Galilee, he became a historical figure The person of our life: Not a distant God, but a near God, who knows us better than anyone and loves us more than anyone else.
This is the strength of Easter, which invites us to roll away the stones of disappointment and despair; The Lord, expert in demolishing the tombs of sin and fear, wants to illuminate our sacred memory, our most beautiful memory, to make our first encounter with Him a reality. “Walk in remembrance: turn to Him, and rediscover in yourselves the grace of God’s resurrection!” The Pope exhorts once more.
Here is Francis’ final call:
“Brothers and sisters, let us follow Jesus to Galilee, meet him and worship him where he awaits each one of us. Let us recapture the beauty of that moment when, having found him alive, we proclaimed him our Lord. Life, to Galilee, each one returns to his own Galilee, and that is the first encounter. , and rise to a new life!”
Eight baptisms
After the Liturgy of the Word, the Baptism Liturgy took place with the baptism of eight catechumens: three Albanians, two Americans, one Italian, one Nigerian and one Venezuelan.
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