“Make your abode in Jesus’ adorable heart. Bring to him your troubles and disappointments, and your heart will be calmed. In his Divine Heart you will find healing for your ills, strength in time of weakness, and a safe haven in all your needs.” (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

It is all about where you choose to live. This is a reality we all must face. Something we must ask ourselves. Are we “happy” where we live? Most people would first and foremost think of the physical location, perhaps their house, the city, town or ranch they live on, or maybe even state or country to answer this simple question. Being content or happy with where we may be living physically is a transitory question but as St. Margaret Mary points out in the above quote, as Christians, we are called to make our “abode in Jesus’ adorable heart.”
When I was teaching at St. Lawrence many years ago I remember a family of a student were moving out of state. In the days before the move in conversation with the husband and wife they noted there was this great Catholic parish very close to their new house and this was one of the reasons they chose this particular house. It struck me as a little odd at the time but the more I have thought about it and the more this point has been brought up in many subsequent conversations the more the reality of the decreasing of the physical house is replaced by the increasing of the abiding in the heart of Jesus.
“One thing I have asked of the LORD, this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple.” (Ps 27:4)
The psalmist gives us this wonderful image of longing. It is a desire to make our homes, wherever they may be into a dwelling place of peace, joy and charity. Looking again at St. Margaret Mary’s words above we recognize how healing and forgiveness must be in the heart of our homes. It is one of those little hints given to newly married couples, “don’t let the little hurts accumulate” or as St. Paul reminds us, “If you are angry, let it be without sin. the sun must not go down on your wrath; do not give the devil a chance to work on you.” (Eph 4:26-27) Where we choose to live is founded in how we then choose to live. The home, as the domestic church becomes the place where faith is practiced and passed on to the next generation, to visitors and to the stranger. Our home begins to reach outward in looking toward the greater home God has prepared for us in heaven.
During this terrible and crazy time, the home has been placed under tremendous stress and pressure. Even my own home, the rectory at St. Lucy, is not immune to the temptations of sin, hurt and isolation even as we are forced to live more closely together. Where there are blessings the devil will seek to “work on you” to twist these graces into the needles of sin that irritate the good will of the family.
St. John Paul II reminds us we are not alone but rather the unity of the family, even when it is difficulty, is the remedy and hope in these times of stress, anxiety and hurt. He writes, “All members of the family, each according to his or her own gift, have the grace and responsibility of building, day by day, the communion of persons, making the family “a school of deeper humanity”: this happens where there is care and love for the little ones, the sick, the aged; where there is mutual service every day; when there is a sharing of goods, of joys and of sorrows.” (#21, Familiaris Consortio)
Where do you live? Each of us has the choice of where we live. Do we choose to make our “abode in the adorable heart of Jesus?” Or do we choose a less desirable and more destructive place? These are questions we must ask and answer daily because while sin can tempt us out of the heart of Jesus, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness will carry us back when we choose to embrace one another in care for the blessing of life.
“Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”” (Lk 9:58)
It doesn’t matter where we live as long as we choose to be with Jesus.
God bless
Fr. Mark