Vantage Point

Traveling Home

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We’ve come again to the beginning of Advent, the time of spiritual reflection and preparation for the feast of the birth of Christ. As winter approaches and the days shorten, our world literally grows darker and colder. It’s a perfect symbol of our need for the Light of the World, the Savior who will dispel the darkness of sin and despair.

Advent has always seemed to me a time for turning toward home. On the most practical level, home is where we go when it gets dark. Home is where we go to find light, warmth, comfort and sustenance when the work of the day is over. It might not be perfect, and it might not always be as peaceful and calm and orderly as we’d like it to be, but usually it’s the place we want to be, especially when night falls or when we’re feeling down or troubled.

Home is where we think things over, make decisions, pray. Home, at its best, is where anxiety and tension subside and peace of heart has a chance to take hold. When we need to prepare for something, spiritually or in any other way, home is a good place to be.

For millions of people today, there is no hope of going home. The migrants who have fled the Middle East for Europe have left homes and possessions, driven out by war, political unrest, religious persecution, unemployment and poverty. On the move and lacking the ordinary comforts of life, they live with uncertainty about where they will settle and the anxiety of adjusting to constantly changing situations.

The idea of leaving home is part of the Christmas story, too. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Joseph had to leave his home in Nazareth and take Mary to Bethlehem so that both could be enrolled in the census ordered by the Roman emperor. It cannot have been an easy journey for Mary, so close to giving birth.

The Gospels don’t tell us what living arrangements Mary and Joseph found in Bethlehem, but they didn’t settle there. In the Gospel of Matthew, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and instructs him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to save Jesus from Herod, who sought to kill him. Jesus, Mary and Joseph became migrants. Only after Herod died could they return home to Nazareth.

As we make our own journey through Advent and prepare for Christmas, it’s good to remember the role that home plays in our lives. It’s a blessing to find a quiet space at home, even if it’s just a corner with a chair, to read a passage from sacred Scripture, or to pray and meditate on the holy mystery that we are about to celebrate: God becoming man to save humanity from sin; God coming to earth with a human nature, to show all people, everywhere, how much God loves them. He is Emmanuel, God-with-us.

The work that Jesus came to do reached its culmination in His passion, death and resurrection. But He did more. To extend His ministry through all times and all places, He founded His Church. It’s the spiritual home of all who enter it. Like any other home, it has its times of joy and peace, and its times of trouble and upheaval. But it’s always a home, always a place of hope, because Christ promised to stay with it and to send His Spirit to protect and guide it.

For anyone who might have drifted away from the Church, Advent is the perfect time to come back home. If that describes you, why not talk with someone who can help you reconnect? If that describes any people you know, why not invite them back? Talking with a parish priest or a member of a local parish would be a good first step.

At Advent and all year long, there’s really no place like home.