Jeremiah 23:5-8 / Matthew 1:18-24
There is one song that we will hear during this time of the year, and it is "I'll be home for Christmas".
Oh yes, it would certainly be very nice to be home for Christmas, and it won't be just in our dreams.
For most of us, we would have a home to go to. But there are certainly some who may not have a home to go back to, for some reason.
In the gospel, we heard that when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took Mary to his home.
It is an act of faith and charity on the part of Joseph to take Mary to his home. But a deeper reflection would bring out much more.
It also meant that Jesus had a home to go to; Jesus had made His home among His people; He is truly the Emmanuel, "God-is-with-us".
In Jesus, the prophecy of Jeremiah in the 1st reading is fulfilled: As the Lord lives who led back and brought home the descendants of the House of Israel out the land of the North and from all the countries to which He had dispersed them, to live on their own soil.
Oh yes, we want to have a home to go back to, and we must not take our homes for granted.
But we must also let Jesus make His home with us. May we also bring Jesus to others so that He can make His home with them too.