Celebrating the ‘home return’ (of a people and the ‘lost son’), is the main theme of this Sunday’s liturgy. It is usually said: “There is a homecoming for us all because there is a home to come to”. In the opening page of his celebrated book Confessions, Saint Augustine confesses his faith and his need to fall back to God for inner peace, through a very well-known quotation:
“You have made us for Yourself [Lord], and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
We find ourselves comfortable in our own homes and in familiar surroundings. In today’s first reading, the Israelites experience a similar comfort and joy of homecoming. They celebrate their return to the Promised Land through the Feast of Passover, which their ancestors celebrated at the time of their departure from Egypt. In the Gospel, the father rejoices with the return home of his “lost son”.
Each individual is a part of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…” (1 Pet 2:9a). Therefore, no one is a ‘lost person’ before God and no one is kept away from entering God’s ‘Holy Space’. His ‘Holy Space’ has become our comforting home through the sacrifice of His own Son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. God is waiting and ready with His hands extended to receive us to Himself. In God’s love and mercy alone, we can find our real place of rest – ‘Our Home’.
—Fr. Ranjan D’Sa OCD