"Home" – it's a word that brings up many images, remembrances, emotions. Maybe Home represents a country – Ireland, Italy, the Phillippines – Maybe Home means a group of people that were and still are close to you, Grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters or other relatives. In college Home represented an escape from the trauma of exams and was a place of nurture to restore one to go back into the world on your own. There are songs gallore about "Homes" In this season we hear the moving "I'll be home for Christmas" or "There's no place like Home for the Holidays", two very emotional songs for many people who miss relatives or friends. Billy Joel wrote a song called "You are my Home" in which he says to his wife of all the places that they as transients on the road experience, he realizes that : "Home is just another word for you." Because it is such a powerful concept in our minds, hearts and souls, it explains why we see and hear so much about how to solve the plight of the Homeless people. Whatever it is, it is something close to each of our hearts – it's more profound than simply a house in which we live. A house can be destroyed through a fire or flood. It can be lost due to a financial disaster. People sell there houses and buy smaller houses – yet, that concept of Home cannot so easily be destroyed, erased.

We hear today in the readings how this developed. David in the first reading has this desire to build a house for the Lord – he's feeling some guilt over the fact that he is living in a beautiful palace and the Lord has only a tent to dwell. David wants to build – And God in a way rebuffs this nice gesture saying to him "David, I have been the one caring for you all along. I've been with you through thick and thin, I will continue to be with you through good times and bad for you are my Chosen people, You are my home..."

In Mary, God chooses to continue this notion of people creating a Home, as God dwelled with the Jewish people in meek and humble means in the first reading, God will dwell in the heart of a meek and humble woman. Through this miraculous virgin conception, God would no longer dwell in a tent – God would enter into humanity, becoming like us in all ways but sin. And as He hung on a cross and said "there is your Mother" he spoke of how he had tied himself so intimately to humanity, so much so that as beautiful as this Church is, the Basilica in Newark and the Basilica in Rome is, they are made from elements that can be wiped out in an instant. The beauty of these churches don't erase the fact that they are merely "houses" of God, it is each of us as disciples who come and receive the Lord in word and body and blood in our hearts who truly make up God's home. This last week of Advent, as we make our houses ready for guests, holiday dinners, let us make an effort to truly prepare our homes for Christ to enter in once again.

(Comments to Fr. Jim at j.n.chern@worldnet.att.net.) OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH