{"id":6174,"date":"2020-02-01T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T14:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=6174"},"modified":"2020-02-01T10:06:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T15:06:03","slug":"no-lasting-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/no-lasting-home\/","title":{"rendered":"No Lasting Home."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in the early 1950\u2019s we lived on Bloomfield, a pretty city street in Akron, Ohio. Dad took the bus to work downtown and mom cooked, cleaned, and fed the three Horan children. I remember a big staircase we were for- bidden to slide down and a bedroom I had all to myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We rented the house for five years. Then one day, to surprise his wife, dad put $2,000 down on a little Cape Cod north of the city. Mom was furious in that she hadn\u2019t been consulted; but with feelings repaired, the Horan\u2019s moved into their first and only home. Dad was pretty proud. The American dream was coming true. (Mom had still to say goodbye to the dream of moving to Columbus to be near her large family.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we owned a home. That\u2019s where I learned to ride a\nbike and Jimmy Farrell and I would explore the woods\nbehind our street. Patty and Maureen did all the things\ngirls do to grow up. 52 years mom and dad had that\nhouse.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew the day would come, but it totally shocked me to\nsee the \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign in our front yard when I drove\nback home to see mom (dad had been dead 3 years). \u201cI\nhave no home now\u201d, was the feeling.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure many of you have a story to tell just like this. The point to be made is, something we all discover soon- er or later, we have no lasting home. St. Paul tells us that all things in this world are passing away (1Cor. 7:31<\/a>) \u201cTime is running out. From now on let those . . . who buy or own act as though they were not owning, those using the world as not using it fully.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? Because we are renting this body, this space, this time, this home, this family, this parish . . . It\u2019s all passing away. Nothing material is made to last forever. That means we\u2019re here temporarily. We\u2019re renting. We\u2019re pilgrims on a journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Paul even calls Christians \u201cstrangers and aliens on earth.\u201d (Hebrews 11:13<\/a>) \u201cThose who speak thus show they are seeking a homeland . . . a better homeland, a heavenly one.\u201d vs. 16. This in no way lessens the beauty and wonder of the world and our responsibility to work for a better world here and now. \u201cGod so loved the world . . . \u201c (Jn. 3:16<\/a>) So do we. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our \u201cpassing through\u201d has huge implications for how we\nuse the things of the earth. Not being \u201cowners\u201d we are\n\u201cstewards\u201d instead. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, \u201cWe\npossess external things not as our own, but as common, so\nthat we are ready to give to others in their need.\u201d Pope\nFrancis in his encyclical, Laudato Si, reminds us that the\ngoods of the earth (our water, air, forests, farmland) are\ngiven to each generation to be properly cared for so they\nmight be passed on to the generations that follow.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you think of it, everything we have has been given to us: our home (Mother Earth), our very lives, our family, our country, our skills to carve out our life\u2019s story. And then . . . . . . there will come a time when we have to leave it all behind. We will pass from this earth to enter (once again by God\u2019s gift) Eternal Life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No more renting; we\u2019ll be home. In the meantime let\u2019s\nuse this time to make this a better world for those who\nwill follow.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bless your Winter days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the early 1950\u2019s we lived on Bloomfield, a pretty city street in Akron, Ohio. Dad took the bus to work downtown and mom cooked, cleaned, and fed the three Horan children. I remember a big staircase we were for- bidden to slide down and a bedroom I had all to myself. We rented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6174"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6180,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6174\/revisions\/6180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}