Return to Your Galilee

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter:

Quare venisti, Bernardi? Quare venisti? It is said that the medieval monk and abbot, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, asked himself that same question everyday of his long life in the monastery: “Bernard, why are you here?” “For what did you come?” And it’s not that Bernard was constantly re-examining his vocation choice or in constant doubt, but rather, he knew if he was to live his life and his vocation fully he needed each day to return to that place of first encounter with the Lord. The place where God’s love first burst into flame in Bernard’s heart. Bernard knew that that same fire could never be lost and it alone could reignite his deepest desires each and every day.

Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil homily this past April echoes this same spiritual wisdom at the heart of Bernard’s daily question. The Holy Father said:

“Dear brothers and sisters, let us follow Jesus to Galilee, encounter him and worship him there, where he is waiting for each of us. Let us receive the beauty of that moment when we realized that he is alive and we made him the Lord of our lives. Let us return to Galilee, the Galilee of our first love. Let each of us return to his or her own Galilee, to the place where we first encountered him. Let us rise to new life.”

So, what about us then? Why are you here? For what have you come? Where is your Galilee?

We hear once again in our gospel those profoundly consoling words of Jesus: In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places if there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself. Where I am going you know the way.

Unfortunately, because perhaps we hear this same passage regularly at funerals we’ve come to assume the dwelling place Jesus has prepared for us is only found after death. But the truth of the matter is the dwelling place is now! The place prepared for us by Christ is now. And yes, we do know the way!

We all have our own Galilee. That place where we first encountered Jesus, knew he was alive and made him the Lord of our own lives. That place of first love. That place where resurrected life springs up eternally in each one of us.

We know the way: Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. But we too can get lost. Grief confounds us. Cynicism grips our hearts. Fear rules us. Resentments turn us bitter and perpetually angry. So we need to ask ourselves, like St. Bernard, daily: “Why am I here?” “For what have I come?” And how, today, can I make a return to my Galilee and rise to the new life Christ has promised? And rediscover the dwelling place he has prepared for me from the foundations of the world.

St. Peter writes: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

The message of our scriptures this 5th Sunday of Easter is really quite simple: “Don’t forget who you are!” For whatever reason you’ve been led a astray. For whatever reason you feel you’ve lost your way. For whatever reason you feel disconnected from that first love that set your own heart on fire. We can always return. The Dwelling Place Christ has prepared for us is not just then it is now and it is ours. But we have to choose to return. Where is your Galilee?

“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.” (Pope Francis)