Homecoming
“Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.” – Mt 1:20
Homecoming is one of the deepest longings of the human heart. To be loved is to come home to someone. Home is the place where we are known and named, welcomed as we are, and held safely enough to become our truest selves.
Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on home through the quiet courage of Joseph. We meet him at a moment of real crisis. Mary is pregnant, and Joseph knows the child is not his. As a righteous man, he stands at a crossroads between law and love. The law prescribes shunning and even stoning; compassion points toward another way. When the angel enters his dream with the words, “Do not be afraid,” Joseph is freed to choose love over fear.
Joseph does not follow the letter of the law, but lives its deepest spirit. In effect, he says to Mary, “You are not alone. You are safe here.” He welcomes her into his home, adopts Jesus, gives him a name, and offers both of them what they need most: belonging. In doing so, Joseph embodies the kind of justice Jesus will later reveal—a justice shaped not by rigidity, but by expansive mercy.
Welcoming Mary also means welcoming everything stirred within Joseph’s own heart: confusion and fear, disappointment and hope, tenderness and trust. Even without understanding, Joseph believes God is present in the mess. And in that trust, he becomes God’s favorite hiding place. God makes a home in him—and in us—not after everything is resolved, but right in the middle of our broken dreams and unwanted feelings. This is Emmanuel: God-with-us.
As Christmas draws near, many of us are traveling—coming and going, returning home, or longing for one. Today’s Gospel invites us to ask: How do we make home for others? How do we offer dignity, safety, welcome, and belonging—especially to those who feel homeless in heart or spirit?
Like Joseph, we are invited to choose love over fear. We can offer a safe place. And as we do, we may discover that God is making a home in us—and through us, for others.