Return to Galilee

It’s Easter Sunday morn and the angel (“young man”) tells the women that the disciples must return to Galilee where they will meet Jesus. Why Galilee?

This is not a “let’s return to how it was before” story just like the new creation brought about by Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection was not a return to Eden. It is something much larger.

Galilee contained the mustard seed that blossomed “into the greatest shrub of them all so that birds of the air come and shelter in its branches” (Mt 13:32–33). Galilee is superseded by Jerusalem, which is why Heaven is called the New Jerusalem, not the New Galilee.

Galilee is that region where Jesus performed His ministry. It symbolises where it all began – where disciples were called, where love and friendship flourished, challenge and instruction took place, misunderstanding occurred, healing and exorcism performed, and a ministry to people on the periphery assumed centre stage.

Galilee leads to Jerusalem, but we don’t get there overnight. So, the question is not “What would Jesus do?” in a particular context, but what ought we to do in the light of all that was lived and taught in Galilee so that people may experience resurrection.

Religious congregations are facing this today. They are returning to Galilee, to their founding charism, not to do the same things they did decades ago, but to chart new directions that will bring little resurrections to people.

New directions that will serve the youth – most of whom are not to be found in church; migrants and refugees; the mentally ill; community building and caring for the earth.

This kind of work needs a post-resurrection ‘Peter’, a leader with faith, vision, energy and openness to the future and the courage to take risks. Peter cannot do it alone; other disciples are needed—a true synodal spirit.

Such leaders are urgently needed in families. Families are Galilees, places where it all began, where faith ought to be lived and passed on, teaching children how resurrection happens.

In this regard every home must have a copy of Prayer Book – For Parents and Children produced by our Archdiocese in 2022. It is a little gem that can be used to renew faith in the family.

As are families, so is society. Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon likes to refer to the family as the “load-bearing wall” of society. Some sections of family life are like a fertile valley, but others are like a desert.

They are not places of habitual prayer, love, and human formation, but trauma. If the trauma is not dealt with it spills out into society as we are seeing.

Trauma at home gives rise to bullying, anger, poor performance at school and an inclination to join gangs.

All organs of State and religion must renew their outreach to families. In the past, families could depend on society to pick up the slack when parents failed since society helped to carry the family. This is no longer so. Families are on their own.

Jesus’ ministry in Galilee was tough work but it bore fruit. Families are assailed by various kinds of violence, not to mention the intractable kind of violence due to the proliferation of drugs and guns, which we seem impotent to contain.

But at least we can refocus our energies on families so that through the hard Galilean work, they are transformed little by little into Jerusalems of hope.