Advent is the great and glorious time we are given every year to prepare for the coming celebration of the birth of the Christ Child. It is a time to reclaim the wonder and awe of the unconditional love of God that sent us His Son so we could come home.
Our Advent Journey to Bethlehem is quite simply a journey home; home to the fullness of life that God and God alone can provide.
As we take this journey, we come to understand the gift of "home" that God blesses us with. What we come to realize is that it is simply not possible to take the journey of faith without “a home,” a family of believers to support, encourage and challenge us along the way. The gift of "home" is one of the fundamental needs of any child of God who seeks to discover the fullness of life that God is offering.
The home that we make here in our church is a home modelled on the kingdom of God. Our home here is about how we experience together with the gift of mercy, love, forgiveness, and healing.
A home is much more than a building. It is a place where we are able to experience acceptance, belonging, and love. A home is a place then that enables us to make sense of an often senseless and confusing world that does not honor and value the dignity of human life.
What we discover on our Advent journey is that our home is not complete until each of us and all of our brothers and sisters are gathered together around the table of the Lord. If one place is empty, if one person is missing our home is not complete.
The message we proclaim to the world is a simple message of the value of home. The sense that God wants us to come home and that our home, God’s home, is not complete without each one of us.
As we enter into our final week of Advent and finish our final preparation before Christmas, let us boldly enter into the Wonder and Awe of the Season. Let us seek to put the HOLY back into the holidays and CHRIST back into Christmas and let these days once again become the HOLYDAYS they are meant to be for us.
Peace and Joy,
Fr. Don
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