The opposite is what Jesus is preparing for us, the many dwelling places that He assured us of in His Father's House. However, Jesus didn't just leave us on earth to do His own things in heaven. We know that He cannot wait to be united with us eternally in heaven. Jesus does not want to leave us orphaned on earth either. He wants to remain with us and in us. He desires to provide us with the best while we are still en route to the Father's House.

Jesus spent three years of His public ministry not only to prepare His Apostles but also all of us for our journey back home. Besides His teachings, He created a whole support system for us before He ascended to the Father. He instituted the Sacraments to grant us special graces, and more importantly, the Church to perpetuate and administer those Sacraments to us. He gave us His beloved Mother to accompany this Church of which we are a part. He left us His Word through the Gospels to guide us and to remain with us spiritually. But He wants to go even further. His love for us is beyond measure. He wants to dwell in us physically so that He abides in us and we abide in Him. And so, He humbles Himself to stay with us in the Eucharist. It is a sign of a complete abandonment of Himself to us. At the end, He also leaves us His Spirit, His very breath, His everything!

Jesus has really done everything He can for us! His love and sacrifice is a complete one. We must then ask ourselves, what more can we ask of Him?

We can be sure that our heavenly Father has exhausted every means reaching out to us, and will continue to do so. He is not a passive God as many of us might think He is.

Of His own accord, Abba Father chooses to break open His Heart to offer us His only begotten Son, whose Heart was in turn pierced by the lance of our sins. Whether we respond or not, our Heavenly Father is waiting for us on the other side, arms outstretched. Instead of condemning us, He desires to baptize us with His Spirit, which means an outpouring of all His love and graces without reserve.

Our exile is over the moment we respond positively to His invitation to go home. With our "fiat", our hidden, naked, and shameful self will be destroyed and our forgone identity restored.

REFLECTION

If what God has already done cannot move you to saying YES to His invitation to go home, what else does it take to bring you home?

Are you waiting for something to happen in your life for you to take your next move? Do you find yourself too passive or weak to respond to God's call?

TODAY'S PRAYER

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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