Handing on Homes

Seeing the world as common heritage of humanity

05/23/2022

Jn 15:26—16:4a Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. “I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”

One of the things I love about living in Fort Smith is how the same house is handed on from family to family. That is, instead of always building a new home, people will buy, renovate, and inhabit an already existing home. Let me give you a few examples, and I hope the people won’t mind me mentioning their names. When I arrived in Fort Smith, I visited both Eddie and Betty Christian in their lovely home at the corner of Park and 66th Streets.

Since then, I have celebrated both their funerals, and now that same house belongs to Bill and Karen Hollenbeck, who love living there. Another house on Park Ave., at the corner of Park and Melrose, was originally the home of H. L. Hembree. But today, Daniel and Kelly Wilson live there with their kids. Even though the Wilson’s live there, it is still called “the Hembree house”.

Of course, the house I live in is not new either but has been handed down from pastor to pastor of I.C. Different pastors have added touches to suit their own tastes. For examples, Msgr. Tom Walsh added the downstairs bedroom suite which was affectionately called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. It has wood paneling and a fireplace to give it a cabin-feel. Fr. Greg Luyet renovated the kitchen area, because it was much in need of a face-lift.

And Fr. Daniel Velasco added more fencing in the backyard so his dog, Lola, could find a warm welcome, too. There is something wholesome and even holy about handing on a home. It shows that the heritage of humanity is much more common than we think. In other words, private property is for the living, not for the dead. And one day, we will all be dead.

I always think about handing on a home when I hear Jesus’ Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper in John’s gospel. How so? Well, Jesus is talking about his impending death and how he will hand on his home, the whole world, into the care of the Holy Spirit. We read Jesus say repeatedly: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.”

I always think of the work of the Holy Trinity in the Scripture like a relay race. God the Father runs the first leg in the Old Testament. God the Son, Jesus, takes the baton and runs the race in the Gospels. And God the Holy Spirit runs the race in the rest of the New Testament until Revelation, the end of time. But what is the "baton" they pass to each other? It is the world and all who live here. Just like the Christian house, and the Hembree house, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin have been handed on from one occupant to another, so the home of the world, in a sense, belonged first to the Father, and second to the Son, and third to the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the Scriptures see the whole world as God’s house, and we are all just temporary inhabitants. Even the divine Persons of the Holy Trinity hand on this common heritage from one divine Person to Another. That is why I believe that handing on a home demonstrates something wholesome and even holy: we imitate the work of the Most Holy Trinity.

My friends, take a little time today to think about where you live, especially if you moved into an existing home. Who lived there before you moved in? Were they the original tenants, or did someone before them build the house? When you moved into the house what improvements or renovations did you make to it? Maybe you added a downstairs bedroom, or gave the tired-looking kitchen a face-lift. Who do you think will have your house when you die and leave this world? Maybe your children will move in, but more likely it will be completely strangers, like the Hollenbecks, or the Wilsons, or Fr. John Antony.

In other words, when we reflect on the reality of handing on a home, we quickly see that the heritage of humanity is a very common one. The principle of private property is really only a very short-lived one, and that only while we are kicking up dust on this earth. Sooner or later, we realize that everything, even our beloved homes, does not belong to us, but is part of the common home handed on between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Praised be Jesus Christ!