May 11, 2007 By The Rev. Alexander Jalso 5 min read

Scripture reading: Luke 15:11-24. Text: “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'” Luke 15:13-19. As we pay respect to our dear mothers – either remembering her what she did while she was with us, or day after day experiencing her kindness and unceasing work – we wish to see the strong and inseparable relationship between the heart of the mother and the happiness of the home.

“TO ADAM PARADISE WAS HOME – TO THE GOOD AMONG HIS DESCENDANTS, HOME IS PARADISE.” Julius Charles Hare.

THOSE WHO ARE HOME. This does not mean sleeping in the bedroom of that house where the other members of the family also live but it refers to those who enjoy a harmonious, happy, and supportive “symbiosis” that is living together for the benefit of each other. We can assume that this existed once in the house where the family of the prodigal son lived. There are simply no words, which could adequately express all the blessings of a family, which lives peacefully under the same roof.

THOSE WHO RAN AWAY FROM HOME. The prodigal son can represent thousands of unfortunate and unhappy people who think it is better someplace else than home because it is impossible to live with the other one. The fugitives, the escapees, the runaway kids are the victims of broken homes where friction, fight and feud are out of control. Our modern and free society has to cope with the big problem of the many homeless not realizing that when we cut off every tie we bind ourselves even more. Who is to be blamed? Who should and could help? What is the solution?

THOSE WHO HAVE NO HOME. Have you ever been an alien, or a refugee, or a foreigner, or a victim of a disaster? Have you ever experienced what it means to be an orphan or a social outcast, or a prisoner of war? Have you ever witnessed the destruction of war when a bomb transformed the family house into a pile of rubbles? Or, what goes through the mind of those who lost their homes because they could not pay the mortgage? Or, how do those children feel who were taken over by the relatives because the father and mother went on their separate ways or had harmful addiction? Is not it one of the greatest tragedies to be without a mother and a sweet home?

THOSE WHO ARE AWAY FROM HOME. No doubt there are some who are adventurous and like to travel visiting various places, or who like to spend the winter where it is warm and the summer where it is cool, these do not miss their home so much, however, ask a soldier – even when there is peace – what does he/she want the most? The answer will be; go home! Whenever you are not home you are either a stranger, or an outsider, or a guest and nobody likes to be any of them for a longer period. Only at home you can act as you feel like to and do not have to pretend how nice you are.

THOSE WHO ARE ON THEIR WAY HOME. What a great moment it was in the prodigal son’s life when he had made up his mind; I will go home! He experienced almost all of the cases; once he was home, then he departed, then he was stranger in a foreign land, and finally he decided; I will return. What a happy feeling it was to be in the arms of a forgiving father!

What makes a home a “love-nest?” The kindness of the people toward each other who live in it. Usually the mother is the number one who starts and practices it. It has happened so many times; after the mother was buried too the children never came home anymore. We are happy to go home when somebody says; come home.

While we enjoy all of the goodness, comfort and safety of the home kept up by the parents, spiritually we are “on the way home”. Please read John 14:1-3, Hebrews 11:13 and 13:14. Only there will be a house transformed into a home, a home into haven, and a haven into heaven, where the members of the family return with this prayer in their hearts: “Lord, enter thou my home with me, until I enter thine with thee.”

The Rev. Alexander Jalso is a retired United Presbyterian minister living in Brownsville.