Pope Francis: Paschal Homily

Here is the Holy Father's homily for the Great Vigil of Easter.

First, it is short. One page. I would estimate it at about five minutes, maybe more like two or three minutes.

Second, he saw the same thing that struck me from St. Matthew's account of the resurrection: "He goes ahead of you into Galilee."

Third, this homily is evangelical. In this, it is a lesson for those of us who call ourselves Anglo-Catholics. The Holy Father constantly speaks and writes about our personal encounter with Jesus, and sharing this Good News with everyone.

“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...

[It means a renewal of] the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him. To return there means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me.

We Anglo-Catholics tend to emphasize the sacramental life of the Church at the expense of personal encounter with Christ, and at the expense of telling others about it. Francis reminds us that some of the greatest missionaries of all time were Roman Catholics -- one thinks of St. Francis Xavier, for example.

We must do better. And that begins with what Francis describes, remembering "the moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me."