Home. Maya Angelou wrote that the ache for home lives in all of us.  Do you have an ache for a place where you can be your best, truest, most honest self, where you can feel peace, where you can just be, where there is more light than darkness?  We long for peace, for safety.  We all want to feel more ok about our life and its messiness. If we really listen to people today we realize we all have the   same ache and hunger for a place called home.

Home.  Do you realize that there are over 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to war, environmental disasters, persecution. That’s a lot of people. What must it be like to flee your home? To leave everything and every familiarity behind? How can an overly crowded tent city, a refugee camp, a detention center be home? Can we even imagine what it’s like to be a child and not have a home? People don’t usually arbitrarily leave home.

Home.  Where is the one home we all share? The place that nourishes us? That provides beauty and hope for our spirit? That teaches us the richness of diversity and doesn’t discriminate based on nationality or culture or education or economic level?  It’s earth.  Earth is our common home. We are all one with the air, the water, the earth, the creatures, the resources. We are called to take care of our common home. “Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.” (Pope Francis)

Home.  “Come, make your home in Me.”  These words of invitation are spoken to each of us. Where can we place our trust and hope? Make your home in Me.  Where can we find unconditional acceptance and love? Make your home in Me.  Where is peace from the storms of life? Make your home in Me.  Where are we one with all our brothers and sisters? Make your home in Me. How will we know the way? Make your home in Me.