In God We Find Our Home
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.” Saint Augustine, in the opening page of his celebrated book – “Confessions” – 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 heart is restless until it rests in You.”
We find ourselves comfortable in our own homes and in familiar surroundings. In today’s first reading, the Israelites experienced a similar comfort and joy of homecoming. They celebrated 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 rejoiced with the return home of his “lost son.”
Each individual is a part of “a chosen race, the king’s priest, a holy nation, God’s own people…” (1 Pet 2-9). 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 extended hands 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