org. Jesus’ call to his Apostles, after his Resurrection, to “return to Galilee”, is the call to re-read everything in the life of Christ “on the basis of the cross and its victory.. from this supreme act of love,” said Pope Francis in his homily during the Easter Vigil celebration on Saturday evening. It is also a call to every Christian to rediscover their baptism “as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience,” he said. “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.” To “return to Galilee” also means renewing “the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. … It means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me,” he added. His Easter Vigil homily inspired the following Easter poem.
Exsultet
The silence of the new dawn.
The empty tomb open to new life.
The angel who urges me on to Galilee –
Origin of my first love
Hope to believe anew.
Warmth to thaw a frozen heart.
Courage to head into the unknown –
Origin of my first love
The friend who meets me on the way.
The fire that ignites the sleeping soul.
The miracle of remembering my source –
Origin of my first love
Joy to drive out all sadness.
Peace to contemplate the rhythm of life.
Freedom to immerse in the ocean of plenitude –
Origin of my first love
The light that illumines the emptiness in the heart.
The love that loosens the chains of fear.
The life that is the meaning of my existence –
Origin of my first love
The beginning, the end, the meaning of my life.
He is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Sarah-Leah Pimentel
Alleluia