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One of my reflections this Lent has been of Home, Home with a capitol H. Lent is the journey and home in the “Father’s House” being its end point. Everyone needs a home, a place to be ones true self, home, with a light in the window, safe, secure and filled with love and acceptance. Even though I live alone I know where home is. Its here in Indianapolis, in the hearts of friends and family, I am also at home with myself. When I last went to Illinois to visit my parents as I came through that familiar door I said, “Hi, Mom and Dad, I’m home.” And so it was.

Lent is that yearly journey to our home, our place again. We journey the “pilgrim way of Lent”, to quote the hymn. We fast, pray, examine ourselves and look to Easter. We return once again or maybe for the first time to the home of the Resurrected One. Then we have the fifty days of Eastertide to revel in the homecoming. We meet all our brothers and sisters in the Church here and now and in the untold millions that have gone from this life to the Everlasting Home in the expectancy of a darkened Church to hear the words “Christ is Risen” “The Lord is risen indeed”. We, the faithful once again find ourselves at home in the best sense of the word.

Robert Frost in his The Death of the Hired Man, the character Warren says: “Home is the place where/when you have to go there,/They have to take you in.” Mary is wife responds, ”I should have called it/Something you somehow don’t deserve.”

We live in a house of love, “Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.” (John 15:4 the Jerusalem Bible) The invitation is right here. You can’t get much plainer than that quote from John. Home is not something we deserve or can earn. Ever. We can only become more conscious of the gift already given to us and accept it. Therefore, as Christians deserving is never a consideration. We don’t have to deserve forgiveness or love because we are eternally welcomed, here and now. Jesus is always in our heart’s home, eager with open arms to greet and embrace us. We are invited home to the Feast, no matter what.

If you find my words hard to accept, pick up your New Testament and hear the word of Jesus in the parable of The Prodigal Son in Luke 15. See who you are in the story. Look at the parable from different points of view. See that the Father has his arms wide open, welcoming you home. So come home and join the Easter Feast.