Learning from wild flowers: We are Pilgrims on a Journey

Just follow this train of thought:

home is where the heart is

where your treasure is there will your heart be also (Mt 6:21)

Home is where the heart is.
As overused as this saying may be, it rings true in many ways. To feel home somewhere is simply to have a happy and full heart there. In my cultural geography class we learned about iconic landscapes. This term names the feeling I get when Hwy 60 opens up to reveal the A&M water tower and press box of Kyle Field or when acres of flat lands below a great big Texas sky -no matter how dry- pushes sweetness right from my heart up into a great big smile on my face. A&M Campus in College Station and Texas country farmlands are two examples of iconic landscapes for me. Seeing them produces a movement of my heart that reminds me that I am home.

Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.
This is one of my favorite Bible versus (although arguably I say that ALOT...so I have quite a few). In a meditation over it one day, it really hit me that, with my free will, I choose where my heart will be. If I cherish things of this world as my treasure (namely fame, wealth, popularity, and the like) my heart will be in the world and consequentially never satisfied by any of the passing pleasures present here. But, if I cherish the things of heaven as Jesus instructs us (i.e. virtues, friendship grounded in God, true beauty, pure love, etc...), my heart will be in the hands of God. And what better place of refuge than the very Hands of its Craftsman? Only there can my heart be satisfied, quiet, and confident (in the poetically beautiful words of Audrey Assad).

In sum.
Our home is with God who crafted our hearts. Our hearts can only be completely fulfilled and satisfied in His presence. Thus, Heaven -the true home to which He calls us- contains the things that should comprise all of our treasure. Being that God created these complicated hearts of ours that often try to stray away from those wonderful treasures in Heaven, He knows this is not always easy for us. In order to lead us on our journey, He gives us feelings of home along the way. This starts in our nuclear families that foster our growth and begin our formation (thus the importance of the family unit in society). After that, a well formed conscience (through catechesis and much prayer) will sense a distinct difference in the feeling of home in a place that is propelling one toward God or leading one astray. Although the pleasures of this world can be enticing, the emptiness left in their wake is deafening and unavoidable by a heart willing to seek true fulfillment and joy. In stark contrast, when a heart stores up its treasure in Heaven, nothing -not even legitimate struggles or sacrifice- can break one's sense of purpose and deep down joy. This "home-feeling" becomes a compass on our path to living God's will. It is also useful in distinguishing between two goods that both potentially lead to Heaven when only one of these goods is made for the particular person in question (i.e. Vocation to marriage or celibacy for the kingdom). Therefore, as pilgrims journeying to our true home (Heaven), we can trust in our Navigator (God) who connects all the homes we experience in this life in a straight line to Him.

St. Mary's Catholic Center; College Station, Texas.
For me, St. Mary's is one of these "homes" on my way to my true, eternal home. More than anything, the feeling of home is manifested in the people I am surrounded by here. Lately I have been reflecting over the wonder at having made such close-knit friendships and developed a family-like community in a little over three years. St. Mary's is a place that never fails to provide me with a warm familiar face at the same time that it introduces me to someone new. It is where I can go to rest, study, eat, learn, and worship. And best of all, St. Mary's houses Jesus in the Eucharist providing ample time for prayer and being in His glorious presence. I know that God has given me St. Mary's as a home to lead me to my true home with Him in Heaven. For on this earth, we are a pilgrim Church after all...