There are two places mentioned in our First Reading from Isaiah and recapitulated in the Gospel that are worth our attention. These are the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali, located in Galilee. It is the land west of the Jordan and the district of the Gentiles. It was the farthest from Jerusalem, bordering the pagan kingdoms of Tyre and Sidon to the north. Zebulun and Naphtali were the darkest parts of Israel. This is where Jesus lived. Jesus lived in the peripheries of mainstream Jerusalem. From this dark place, the Lord Jesus brings the two things we ask for in this life: light and joy. I hear Isaiah utter with exuberance,

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light … You have brought them abundant joy and rejoicing.

Never lose hope in God. When life seems dark and uncertain, today’s reading assures us that Christ will come. He comes bearing light and joy.  

Light reveals. We are people who walk in darkness, but when we walk in Christ, when we live from Christ, we see the world as it truly is and the path before us. Without Christ, we guess at life and fall short of the deepest answers to the most profound questions: What do I believe? Who is God? What is God’s plan for me? What does God want for me? How can I truly be happy? God has revealed the answers to these questions, and the answer is Christ. Christ is the light. He is not a light that turns on and off, flickers, and fades away. His light is abiding. His light transforms the human heart. His light shines brightest in the darkness of the human soul.

The Lord’s light comes to reveal and calls us by name. It is from this land of Galilee that Jesus called his first disciples in today’s Gospel. We are reminded that God knows our name! He calls us to live in the light. Remembering Galilee is living in the memory of when Christ first invited us to follow him. Pope Francis spoke of this return to a Galilee that was specifically ours. He said,

In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also another “Galilee”, a more existential “Galilee”: 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.

Return to your Galilee and live in joy. Joy is the root of the Christian identity. Pope Saint John Paul II spoke of living in joy when he said:  

We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery — the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. ‘We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!’ We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the ‘fundamental duty of love of neighbor, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy.’

How do we live in the joy of Christ? The psalmist may have the answer. I am struck by the one and only request of the psalmist in our Responsorial Psalm today:

One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD and contemplate his temple (Psalm 27:4).

For the past few years, I have found a community of brothers and sisters with whom I pray each morning on Zoom. We meet daily to sing the Divine Office. It has taken a lot of sacrifice to be on time for Zoom before the sun rises each day. Yet, slowly, every day is a decision, every day is a new promise, every day is the opportunity to say yes to God. I have learned that joy comes from sacrifice. Joy is not separate from the sacrifice. Praying with this community grounds me for the day and centers my thoughts on seeking Christ throughout the day. The sacrifice of singing his praises each morning helps me understand that no matter what happens throughout the day, nothing can shake my focus on Christ, nothing can steal him from me. To live in his house all the days of my life is to be constantly aware that God is never absent.

Live in light, live in joy. Live from Christ and not apart from him. This is the Christian identity!