8 November, Friday — There is no place like home

Friday of Week 31 in Ordinary Time

Phi 3:7-4:1
Lk 16:1-8

…our homeland is in heaven…

As of writing this, I just finished attending Mass at a Catholic church in Japan. I was given a very warm welcome such that in the middle of my trip, I felt at home. It reminded me of how weary I was during one of my other trips and the moment I attended Mass, I was recharged and refreshed. Even though I was in a foreign land where the food was different, the culture was different, and the place was in a different time zone, being inside the church made me feel so much at home.

It’s such a blessing that the Mass (Novus Ordo) is celebrated in the same way. I also had the chance to participate in other Catholic rites and I’m so glad that we all received Christ. Being able to say, ‘Our Father’ also shows that I am a member of a huge family. That everyone I see in the church is family. This is really a lot easier to spot during Ash Wednesday because we would know our ‘family members’ outside of church.

In today’s reading, St Paul says that our homeland is in heaven. And that is absolutely true. We are just passing by this world on our way to Heaven. God created this earth and provided us with the Catholic Church so we could have an experience of heaven on earth. At every moment, whenever we contemplate what it means to have a home, we would definitely see signs and likenesses of heaven around us.

What can we do to feel more at home here on earth wherever we are? One of the things I love in the Japanese culture is that when people reach home, they announce themselves by saying, “I’m home.” Maybe one of the things we can do is when we go to a Catholic Church, we can greet our Lord, and our Mother Mary and say, “Dear Lord, and Mother Mary, I’m back home.” A lot of times, we say that we are going to church, it’s as if we are just going there to temporarily visit. Perhaps, we can consider a shift in our thinking – that when we go to church, we are going back to our other home.

They say that heaven rejoices when a soul reaches there. I think heaven rejoices as well, whenever a person steps into a church. Maybe we can imagine the faces of God, the Saints, and the angels beaming as we go in through the church doors. Our Guardian Angel would also be smiling as he passes by his angelic friends. He’s very happy that he managed to convince us to go home to Church. At times, maybe we can imagine our Guardian Angels telling the other angels, “I made sure he woke up in time today.”

Finally, whenever we see a Catholic church, I wish that everyone of us can say, “That’s my home. That’s a nice place where I belong to.” And maybe at the end of Mass, we can reflect more on what it means to go in peace. I’d like to think that it also means, ‘Go out safely, and come back home safely.’

(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)

Prayer: Dearest Lord God, I pray that I would desire to go home to our Catholic church as often as I can.

Thanksgiving: Thank you for giving us a home (homes) here on earth, our dearest Father.