Back.... at home!

I just got back from the quickest of weekend trips to Branson, MO to help my 82 year old dad and my step mom move into their new handicapped accessible apartment. So, I have been thinking thoughts of home on many levels.

Concurrently, I have been fasting from daily Eucharist. I managed to make it to 5 p.m. Saturday Mass in Branson by the skin of my teeth. But I missed Friday, Saturday and Monday because of the circumstances surrounding the travel and the move. More on that later, but one word for now.... starved!

I was blessed to come home and find this quote from Blessed Charles de Foucauld in my in-box, along with today's gospel.

It feels so good to be home.... home in my physical home, home spiritually in the Church, at home with the family of God in the Eucharist. All these good feelings are what enable me to comprehend what a great gift we've been given... and how we need to make a room of poverty so that these can grow.... in our lives and the lives of others who are truly poor.

Today's gospel:

Mt 8,18-22.

When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. A scribe approached and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." Another of (his) disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

Then the commentary:

Venerable Charles de Foucauld (1858 – 1916), Hermit and Missionary in the Sahara Retreat in Nazareth

“The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

"So here, oh my Lord Jesus, is that divine poverty!

How necessary it is that you teach me this! You loved it so much!…

During your mortal life, you made it your faithful companion.

You left it as an inheritance to your saints, to all who want to follow you,

to all who want to be your disciples.

You taught it by the example you gave throughout your entire life.

Through your words, you glorified this poverty, you beatified it,

proclaimed it as necessary.

You chose poor workers to be your parents.

You were born in a cave that served as a stable.

You were poor in the work you did when you were a child.

The first ones to adore you were shepherds.

At your presentation in the Temple, the gift of the poor was offered.

You lived as a poor worker in Nazareth for thirty years,

where I have the good fortune to walk,

where I have the joy … of picking up manure.

Then, during your public life,

you lived from alms in the midst of poor fishermen

whom you had taken to be your companions.

“With no place to lay your head.”

On Calvary, you were stripped of your clothing,

your only possession, and the soldiers gambled among themselves.

You died naked, and you were buried by means of alms by strangers.

“How blest are the poor!” (Mt 5:3)

My Lord Jesus, how fast will the person become poor who,

loving you with all his heart, cannot bear to be richer than his Beloved!"