Know Your Story: Your Galilee Moment
Jesus Loves Individual by Danny Hahlbohm (Flickr)
Part 1 of Know Your Story series
Editor’s Note: This two-part series, Know Your Story, is taken from Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies by Nancy HC Ward. The series begins with Part 1: What is Your Galilee Moment? and concludes with P art 2: Your Faith Bio.
Know Your Story
I have found that faithfully keeping a spiritual journal keeps me always ready for any opportunity to share my conversion story and ready to convey the compassion and mercy of God to others.
What was that first defining moment when you knew that God was real, that he loved you? Mark that with a star. That’s the most important experience. Focus on the God-moment that changed you.
Ask Yourself: What experience changed my life because of my encounter with Jesus Christ? Can I see myself sharing this experience?
What is Your Galilee Moment?
One approach that helps many people define the God-moment in their faith story is described in Pope Francis’s homily on the Easter Vigil, 2014. He referred to Jesus after his Resurrection telling his disciples to return to Galilee where they first gave their lives to him. Jesus first proclaimed the Gospel in Galilee, and there he called the disciples:
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:14–18)
After Jesus’ death on the Cross, at what they thought was the end of everything they had hoped for, the angel in the Resurrection story instructs the followers of Jesus, reminding the women what Jesus wanted them all to do after his death:
And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” (Mark 16:5–7)
[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.
Ask Yourself: What is my Galilee moment, where I first met the Lord and where I need to return?
