We often hear that “Home is where the heart is”, and this is certainly true. But what if the longing we felt towards home could be satisfied not by a place, but by a condition of being? What if we could “be” in that place where we find joyful contentment at any time and at any place? What if home really was – or could be – WHAT the heart is?
+++
Notes from the talk:
Home is What the Heart Is;
A Reflection on the Parable of the Prodigal Son
St. Luke 15: 11-32
What is a home? What is it that you think of?
- Where you can relax.
- Where you are loved.
- Home is where the heart is.
- There are things that our hearts long for
- Home is the place where our hearts find the answer to its longing
Play with this a bit: Home is WHAT the heart is.
- It’s not really a place… not yet.
- There are places where we have had glimpses of joyful contentment
- But it’s not always a place: there are people who have been the satisfaction of our longing.
- And I think this takes us closer to the truth of things
Part of the attraction of the ideal homes of our memories is the love that we shared with others within that home.
- Part of our continued longing and restlessness comes from the fact that the love of people and places is not perfect. This can lead us to a continual search for the right place or the right person.
- But what if the perfect love; the perfect home, if you will, wasn’t a place. At least not as it is commonly conceived.
- Home is WHAT the heart is… at least for those who have allowed Christ-God into that heart. His love is always there; the search for contentment moves from becoming a search for the right spouse, or friends, or job, or place to live. It becomes the removal of everything in our minds and lives that separate us from being with the God who is home in our hearts.
- Simplicity, peace, repentance all allow us to be with the God who is always there.
- And as we move ourselves into that same place with Him, contentment, joy, courage, and every virtue surround us.
We will have finally have found our true home: that state of perfection that exists in those who live in Christ and have Him living in them.
Until we take this truth seriously, we are living like the Prodigal and can know only brief moments of contentment.
Our worship, our prayer, and all our disciplines are designed to make the road to the blessed Home of our Lord open to us. Let us now walk down that road together.
