S12 E16: Remember Your First Love
About This Episode
In this episode, we discuss Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil homily about the hope that comes from remembering Jesus, our first love. We reflect on his meditations about how the women in scripture are grieved to find Jesus’ empty tomb, and like these women, we all too often become hopeless and see joy as belonging to the past. We discuss moments of personal encounter with the love of Jesus that has healed us and offer an invitation to a renewed hope in Jesus by remember the great joy and power that comes through relationship with Him. Let us allow our ‘sealed tombs’ to be opened and restored by hope this Easter season.
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Show Notes
One Thing We Love This Week
Sister Miriam’s one thing - Savory ham and cheese scones
Heather’s one thing - The young leaders at Franciscan University
Michelle’s one thing - Let Beauty Speak: The Art of Being Human in a Culture of Noise by Jimmy Mitchell (or on Amazon here)
Michelle’s other one thing - The TOR Sisters - Sr. Rita Claire and Sr. Brigid as well as the CSU at Florida State University
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Adam Young Podcast - What to do with Your Sorrow and Grief p.1
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
“But please, please—won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself. “My son, my son,” said Aslan. “I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another. “ - C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
Discussion questions:
What does it mean to live in Resurrection power?
How is God encountering you in your life today?
In your life today and in the past, how have you experienced disappointment and grief?
Where in your life do you long for deeper freedom and joy?
When have you experienced the faithfulness and kingship of God?
Journal Questions:
Where have I come into agreement with despair?
What “tombs” in my life do I run to in the hopes of encountering Christ?
In what ways do I ask God why I experience suffering instead of how He will bring about His Glory through it?
Where am I still hiding from the Lord? What lies do I believe when I am hiding?
Quote to Ponder
“Let us return to Galilee, to the Galilee of 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!”
“Yet, to do this, the Pasch of the Lord takes us back to the grace of our own past; it brings us back to Galilee, where our love story with Jesus began, where that first call was. In other words, it asks us to relive that moment, that situation, that experience in which we met the Lord, experienced his love and received a radiantly new way of seeing ourselves, the world around us, and the mystery of life itself.”
“Yet today, brothers and sisters, the power of Easter summons you to roll away every stone of disappointment and mistrust. The Lord is an expert in rolling back the stones of sin and fear. He wants to illuminate your sacred memory, your most beautiful memory, and to make you relive your first encounter with him.”
“Each of us knows the place of his or her interior resurrection, that beginning and foundation, the place where things changed. We cannot leave this in the past; the Risen Lord invites us to return there to celebrate Easter. Remember your Galilee, remember it.”
“Sometimes we too may think that the joy of our encounter with Jesus is something belonging to the past, whereas the present consists mostly of sealed tombs: tombs of disappointment, bitterness, and distrust, of the dismay of thinking that “nothing more can be done,” “things will never change,” “better to live for today,” since “there is no certainty about tomorrow.”
“In their lives, those women experienced Easter as a Pasch, a passage. They pass from walking sorrowfully towards the tomb to running back with joy to the disciples to tell them not only that the Lord is risen, but also that they are to set out immediately to reach a destination, Galilee.”
“Then it is easy to yield to disillusionment, once the wellspring of hope has dried up. In these or similar situations—each of us knows our own—our paths come to a halt before a row of tombs, and we stand there, filled with sorrow and regret, alone and powerless, repeating the question, “Why?” That chain of “why.” The women at Easter, however, do not stand frozen before the tomb; rather, the Gospel tells us, “They went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples” (v. 8). They bring the news that will change life and history forever: Christ is risen! (v. 6). At the same time, they remember to convey the Lord’s summons to the disciples to go to Galilee, for there they will see him (cf. v. 7).”
Scripture for Lectio Divina
“I have found the one my soul loves.”
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