Going Home

“If you are lonely,

open your door.

Invite people in.

Hug them.

Make them feel welcome.

Give the gift of a flashlight to light their way home.”

Last week, we had the gift of attending a funeral of a friend’s grandmother.  A beautiful faith filled woman that I have had the privilege to meet a few times.  A woman very, very dear to our friend and her family.  A woman who lived a long, full life, and loved deeply.   The words above were spoken by her daughter at the end of the Mass, as a “mission statement” she felt her mother lived by.  It was so simple and so profound.  This was how she lived her life, her door always open, and her heart even more. And I see this same way of looking at life lived on through her granddaughter and her family.  She and her husband have always been so welcoming through the years, and as soon as we enter their home, we really feel “at home.”  They have the real gift of “being present.”

Those words have sat with me, and really given me something to ponder.  What a beautiful way to live life, isn’t it?   What good advice.  In a world where people are always tempted to shut themselves in, so often behind the comfort of a screen, hide themselves, their loneliness, their pain, and even their joy…  How timely these words come.  Lord, give us the eyes to see and the courage to truly be open and accessible. May our hearts always be open and inviting.  May we see the beauty in every person, truly seeing Jesus in Him. May that gift of being truly present warm the other’s heart and make them feel truly loved and more assured of their dignity.  And may that warmth and love they have experienced light their way Home.

Eternal Rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may perpetual Light shine upon her.  May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.