Today is Nov. 5, Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time.
In a parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel for today’s Mass, Our Lord says, “Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled” (Lk 14:23).
In the context of the parable, this line from Scripture is deeply moving. It’s from the parable about the rich man who throws a feast, but all of his invited guests make their excuses and do not attend. He then sends servants out into the streets to invite others in.
It’s a sorrowful thing. How many of this man’s friends and family need more than anything else to take the time to be in a place that is safe? To find a place where they can rest among others whom they love? How many need simply to return to a place that they can call home?
The November issue of Our Sunday Visitor is all about accepting that invitation to return home. To return to that setting where we are truly known and selflessly loved.
It may not be possible for everyone to return home. Time and space and misunderstandings and disinterest, maybe even the long effects of violence or sin, may make reunions here on this side of eternity difficult, even impossible. We may face difficult homecomings this holiday season. But we have another home.
The Anglican convert Father Robert Hugh Benson writes, “The sense of home-coming — that strange passion for a particular set of inanimate things; or, at the most, for an association of ideas — has no parallel in human emotions.” Benson knew what it meant to arrive at home. He made quite a journey to find his home in the Catholic Church.
Ultimately, the Church is our spiritual home, our supernatural home. She will guard and protect us. She cries out to us today, saying, “Come, everything is now ready.” May we enter in. And may our fervent prayers aid our families and friends who have yet to heed this loving invitation.
Today, let’s pray for all those who have lost sight of their home in the Church. May they hear the voice of the Master calling them to “dine in the Kingdom of God”:
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
My Daily Visitor spiritual reflections are a dose of daily Catholic inspiration from Our Sunday Visitor magazine.
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