Sixth Sunday of Easter: Heaven and Home

(Mother’s Day)


[Second draft]

I’d like to begin the homily today with an excerpt from a poem,
a poem written by a mother:

“The Gift” by Louise Gluck

Lord, You may not recognize me
speaking for someone else.

I have a son. He is
so little, so ignorant.

He likes to stand
at the screen door, calling
oggie, oggie…

Sometimes
a dog appears by accident
and comes up the walk
and stands at the door.

But my son does not believe in accidents.
Rather, he stands at the screen
welcoming each beast
in love's name.

Your emissary, O God. Your emissary.

Who but a mother would take note of such a moment?

And who but God would give that observant mother
the grace to see, in the chubby hands of a child
slapping the screen in a kitchen door,
a sign of God’s heaven breaking in upon the world?

* * *

In last week’s homily I pointed out that the readings at Mass
during the Easter season,
have a lot to say about heaven.

Today’s second reading picks up
right where last Sunday’s passage left off:
right in the middle of St. John’s vision
of the new and eternal Jerusalem.

Now, John’s mystic vision doesn’t include the neighbor’s dog,
but he does mention some mighty interesting beasts
who stand guard at God’s throne.

But first he describes the walls of the heavenly city and,
in today’s passage he mentions
twelve gates;
immense gates that swing open to welcome people
of every tribe and nation
into the Kingdom of God.

Obviously, these gates are nothing like that screen door
in Gluck’s poem
where a young child stands
with bright eyes and sticky hands
and welcomes
a neighborhood dog.

Yet, every mother knows it’s not the shape of the door
or the width of the door or gate that matters.

And St. John would readily agree.

It’s the love that one encounters at the door of a house that matters,
the love that prefigures
the great welcome that awaits God’s faithful people
at the gate of heaven.

* * *

Sometimes we overlook the importance
of the welcome that occurs at the doors of our homes.

I have a book here called “Catholic Household Prayers and Blessings”
which I recommend to all of you.
In this book there is a beautiful prayer that
draws our attention to something we take for granted:
the door into our home and the welcome it offers.

Listen to this prayer that we Catholics are urged to pray
at the door of homes in the season of Easter:

O God, make the door of this house wide enough
to received all who need human love and fellowship;
narrow enough to shut our all envy, pride and strife.
Mat its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block
to children or to straying feet.
But strong enough to turn back the tempter’s power.
Lord, make the door of this house
the gateway to your eternal kingdom.

* * *
Let’s think of this in terms of today’s reading from Revelation.

If the walls of heaven are comprised of twelve hefty gates,
can screen doors and front doors and kitchen doors
reflect the Kingdom of God as well?

Absolutely!

After all, our homes are sacred places,
domestic churches,
holy ground.

Our homes of love.

And where dwells there dwells God.

Love.
Home-grown love.
Mother’s Day love.
And all the other kinds of love
form the sturdy bridge
that connects our house on earth
to the great house of God in heaven.

Never forget that you home
is a tabernacle of the presence of God.

Some days it’s hard to believe, but it’s true nonetheless.
Embedded within the ordinary
dinner-table-talk
-take-out the garbage
-dad-you-got-time-to-pitch-me-a-ball
kind of love is the very love of Christ himself.

* * *

Don’t let the Book of Revelation confuse you.

Our city might not be fortified by a wall with twelve immense gates.
but every time the door of your house
opens in welcome
for block parties
and first communions
and for friends in need…
a great miracle takes place:

Earth comes down to heaven
and love takes hold in our hearts.

“Lord,” we pray,
“make the doors of our homes
gateways into your kingdom.”