A Jesuit Catholic University
in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1878

[284] Acts 13:44-52 Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4 John 14:7-14

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

Home. It's a powerful concept for human life. It represents our place of origin, our families and memories, the things that have made us who we are. Conversely and almost paradoxically, it is also used to represent our ultimate destination. It's where/what/who we're always trying to get back to when we've moved away from it, for any period of time. Whatever or wherever that may be for us, we're always trying to go home (I'm looking at you, students from California. You survived the winter, congratulations.)

The universal home of the human family, the point-of-origin and ultimate-destination we all share, is God the Father. He is the one who made us who we are, holds us in existence and continues to shape our lives over time. He looks on us tenderly as his children, and we are made to have an intimate, loving, family bond with him. In mankind's beginning, we had exactly that.

But when sin entered the world, brokenness became part of our existence, simply because we lost that family bond with the Creator. We wound up very far from home, and in our every endeavor to reconcile with God or to relieve our own suffering, we have been trying to get back home ever since. 

I'm sure most of us have a pre-programmed, Sunday school answer for the question, "Why did Jesus come?" It could be, "He died on the cross for us," or "To save us from our sins," or "To teach us how to be good people." I'm not trying to bash Sunday school; all of these answers are valid. But I freely admit, I'm a typical product of my generation and I can't stand cliches. 

There is a much deeper, profound, universe-shaking reason that Christ as God took on human nature and entered the limits of Creation for us; one that underlies all the other answers. He came as the God-man to mediate between us and the Father. He came to help us get back home. Nobody wants that more desperately for us than he, such is his love.

That love is something he made palpable through his death on the Cross and his Resurrection. He continues to make it palpable at every Mass; every time, he offers us a share in his loving union with the Father.

“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. 

From now on you do know him and have seen him...The Father and I are one.” 

Thanks to him, we have indeed seen the Father.

May you be blessed abundantly with consolation in the Father's love, as we continue to celebrate the joy of the Easter season.