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An Advent Invitation to
Come Home for Christmas
Dear friends,
In this darkest of months, there is a special beauty in a house shining
with lighted windows. In the evening that seems to come so quickly these
days, you sense a silent invitation being offered by a house with all its
windows lighted from within. And when the house in question is your own
home, the invitation is irresistible. I remember getting that feeling for
the first time when I was in high school. I had an after-school job in
Teaneck and on dark December nights, after work was done, I would get off
the bus in Ridgefield, walking along streets with many lighted windows
(but they were the windows of strangers) before finally reaching the only
one that really counted, our home on Elm Avenue. The lights would be on,
and I could imagine the smell of Mom's cooking long before I reached the
door. Coming home.
Perhaps you've had the experience of coming home after a long time away.
Was home welcoming? If you had been away too long, if the parting had been
angry, perhaps you weren't sure what welcome would await you. Did you
circle the block a few times before you found the courage to go up to the
door? "Are the lights on even for me?" Coming home.
Perhaps because this is the darkest of months, we take special delight in
illuminating our homes with even more lights than usual. But what's the
connection between Christmas and Christmas house lights? There's an old
Irish legend that says that we must put a candle in the window at
Christmas time to guide the Holy Family on their journey ... and to assure
them they are welcome in our home. May it be thus for all of us this
Advent.
But there are people who will be walking the dark streets this Advent
wondering if there are lights on at home for them. Lights on at their
spiritual home, the Catholic Church. They've been away ... for many years
or fewer than that ... or their times in church have become spotty enough
to make them feel more like visitors than family. Perhaps the parting was
angry. Perhaps at a certain point in growing up and stretching boundaries,
the spiritual home of their youth seemed too cramped. Maybe the break came
as a result of a rude word that cut, or a prayer that seemed to go
unanswered, or a Church become far too human and sinful. And maybe, if I'm
perfectly honest with myself, it's just spelled L-A-Z-Y. Whatever. Can I
ever just come home?
Along the dark December streets there also walk two travelers heading to
Bethlehem. They do so for all eternity. Joseph, so concerned for his
pregnant wife, Mary, wants to stop, but she will not allow it. Carrying
the Christ Child in her womb with love beyond all telling, Mary will not
stop to rest until she has gathered with her all those God has chosen so
that we might be together with her in Bethlehem. Because, you see, this
Christmas and every Christmas, it all begins anew. A new beginning for you
and me, the hope renewed of a world made new, a world of justice and
peace, where the dignity of each human person is finally respected and
each and every person finds a home. God becomes human so that humans may
share divine life. It doesn't get any better than that. In the Child of
Bethlehem we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of
the God we cannot see.
Are the lights on for you in your spiritual home, the Church? Come and
see. Are the doors open ... "even for me?" Of course they are. Haven't you
ever noticed that the stable at Bethlehem has no doors at all? Are you
going to circle the block forever? Mary, our Mother, will not rest until
all her children are home. Come home! Come home for Christmas.
Yours in the love of the Lord,
Msgr. Robert Slipe
(Pastor, 1994 - 2009) |
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