January 7, 2021

WHERE IS HOME? WHAT IS HOME?

 

(originally published in CatholicRegister.org)

The first haiku I ever wrote was about home. I was in sixth grade French class staring out the window as usual (zut alors!), and it came to me wholly formed, in a flash of insight.

Oh, how I do think
of how lovely life would be
if I could go home.

Lest you are thinking I went to a boarding school, I did not. The content and sentiment of the haiku startled even moi-même, because I knew it didn’t mean my home right down the street. The poem was surely a grace from God, whispering to me that I had another home, my real home for which I was longing. It was my first inkling of heaven.

“Home” has been much more than a concept during the 2020 pandemic filled with lockdowns, shutdowns and restricted activities. People got reacquainted, very reacquainted with their living spaces, such as they are, and with their families and roommates, such as they are. My friend--who was paying off her dream condo on Yonge St.--became quite literally a prisoner for months on end in her cozy little nest (due to pre-existing lung conditions). The upshot of “home” for her was that, “when the days of her confinement were over,” she sold the thing and bought a home in Thorold, swearing to never be a cliff dweller again.

As I see it, everyone has three homes.
1) Our physical home: where we crash at night. Even the home-less might consider the streets their home, or perhaps a piece of hard-earned turf somewhere. This physical, practical place can be palatial or humble, and we might change our address many times throughout life. For some, the family homestead has great significance, having been passed down from generation to generation. Indelible memories and family history are ingrained in every doorway and staircase. I remember when we were kids going on a family vacation each summer, we’d actually wave and say “goodbye house!” as the station wagon pulled away. My mum still lives in this same house she’s lived in for sixty years now. My Dad lived in it even longer, and before him a professor whose grown-up grandchildren (all girls) would periodically visit our house—just the house, mind you—and weep as they remembered their dear Grandpa Morgan. You see, love is the only real thread that keeps any of us attached to anyone or anything.

2) Our spiritual home: whose hearts we live in/who lives in our hearts. How often have you heard a spouse say of their beloved: “she is my home/he is my home”? And God definitely wants to be enthroned in our hearts, first and foremost: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone…opens, I will enter and sup with him” (Revelation 3:20).

3) Our forever home: God. Our third home overlaps with our second home, because heaven starts now if God is in our heart. (Hell can also start now if He isn’t!) Heaven is a place and a Person.

If, as the Bible tells us, “…here we have no lasting city…” (Hebrews 13:14), then why are we so invested in “here”? Why are we so sad to think of leaving this world to be with God forever in paradise? Because our earthly home—with all its warts--is all we know, and the unknown can be terrifying, even if our good God is both the destination and the One making the promises. So, “don’t be such a stranger!” We have our whole lives to get to know God so well that “death will be like moving from one room to another” (Blessed James Alberione).  

Jesus Himself had a checkered trajectory when it came to “home.” There was no room…in the inn” (Luke 2:7). Born in a barn (we really shouldn’t use that expression pejoratively); a child refugee; returns to Nazareth; moves to Capernaum; hits the road preaching, teaching and healing, and tells His disciples: “The birds of the sky have nests, the foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58); buried in a borrowed tomb.

 For those worn out, depressed, or even made suicidal by these plague days, I would like to say: “Home is on the way!” Our earthly life is so short—but we don’t get to decide when it ends. So hang in there--one year at a time [gives 2020 the bum’s rush]--with Jesus: our Friend, our Saviour, our Home.

Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp, is a Daughter of St. Paul. She holds a Masters in Media Literacy Education and studied screenwriting at UCLA. www.HellBurns.com  Twitter: @srhelenaburns

 

 


30 MINUTES B.C.--A NATIVITY STORY (FILMED PLAY)

“30 MINTUES B.C.--A NATIVITY PLAY”
GKChestertonEntertainment.org
Review by Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp

TRAILER:  https://vimeo.com/488746762

The forty-three minute filmed play, written and directed by Denise Vi Flaten is an imaginative, lovely drama of Joseph and Mary just thirty minutes before the Savior is born. The narrator is none other than Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in “The Chosen”)—however, the narration is more like a few brief, mostly unnecessary stage directions. Even if it was supposed to be a fun little device, it doesn’t really work, is disruptive and takes us out of contemplating the scene before us. Thankfully it isn’t often! There is one super-ugly and jarring line (is it a joke?) right after Jesus’ birth. Joseph quotes Isaiah, and Mary blurts out the exact chapter and verse. What is this, Bible Trivia? But these are minor flaws.

The setting is a stage populated with hay bales and a manger. The loquacious couple “defer to one another out of reverence for Christ”: affectionate ribbing, Scripture references, religious concerns and also solo dialogues with God—which all help us to see from a very human standpoint what the holy pair were going through. Such love and respect between these spouses—a lesson for all married couples. Joseph is a fierce protector of Madonna and Child—feisty and angry and frustrated that he can’t provide more for his wards. There are ample “joys and tears mingled all the while” (a hymn to St. Joseph) with not a few premonitions of the Passion. A few well-placed sound effects are delightful. The actors are quite good.

Inspired by the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, Maria Valtorta and Venerable Mary of Agreda, the vocabulary aims for a first-century feel, but is speckled with a few stray contemporary-sounding expressions. Some, of course, will object to the fact that Valtorta is cited as a source, due to her writings having sketchy, extremely fraught and conditional Church approval. However, I feel we should just look at the play—the final outcome of these inspirations—on its own merits or lack thereof.

Joseph is about ten years older than Mary and a work in progress (he’s rather impatient). But then he effuses about the little Lord about to be miraculously birthed: “My God and my son!” “How will I not die of joy holding God in my arms?”

My favorite moment is when Mary cries and prays to God in her dire straits (the momentousness of what is unfolding). Haven’t we all felt—even though we understand God is with us—fearful and desolate when we are in the depths of suffering, or facing what we know will be a difficult future? Mary and Joseph’s heartfelt prayers give a hint of their rich interior lives. And their conversations (basically what the entire play is made of) are not ordinary. We know they talked, right? What would they have said to each other? I love the conversations of the Holy Family in my favorite Jesus movie (“The Young Messiah”), but they are cursory and minimal. “30 Minutes B.C.” dialogues are a feast. Methinks we should all talk about and to God more like this.

This is an utterly Catholic play, utterly loyal to God and man. Mary is slightly more the protagonist than Joseph. She is as humble as she is strong. I am changed by watching this play. Theology of the Body “feminists” like myself (who appreciate men and believe in our non-identical equality and complementariness) will love what Mary has to say about herself as a woman, how she loves and accepts her nature and embraces her (divine) motherhood, mission and vocation in life, body and soul.

The strength of virginity (in this interpretation, Joseph has also been committed to perpetual virginity his whole life), the strength of parenthood, the strength of human and divine love is central and the narrative’s guiding star.

This depiction will not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you prefer the mystery of a “Silent Night,” a church tableau, or a simple, sparkly Christmas card. I approach it as an artistic attempt to fill in the blanks, which I don’t feel like I need (although some earnestly do). The Scriptures are plenty for me. But I can always find something inspiring in almost any Bible film, drama, painting or other artistic representation. Well done, thou good and faithful thespians!