Boys and girls, it says in today’s scripture,
that the “Father has many dwelling places in his house.”
Let me share a story when I was your age.
I have 9 brothers and 2 sisters.
That’s a lot of brothers and sisters. Isn’t it?
But we had a big house.
My Mum ran a Bed & Breakfast house
as well as having all of us to take care of and feed.
We had 10 bedrooms in the house;
9 of which were guest rooms.
That’s right. Mum and Dad had one room.
So where did we all sleep?
We had 4 rooms at the back of the house.
We had 14 rooms in all in the whole house.
Anytime during the summer, we would have 25 to 30 guests
on top of the 12 children to feed.
Breakfast was for 35 people every day of the summer!
Can you imagine that?
That is a lot of cooking, isn’t it?
All of us had to help.
We all did a little bit around the house
but my Mum had a great gift.
She was so good at making everybody feel right at home.
All the guests felt like family
and we kind of knew a lot of them because they were regulars.
Like some families would come back every single summer.
We had salespeople come in and we would know them by name.
Like I remember Mr. Jones.
I remember Mrs. Smith.
I remember my mother could never remember
the names of the German couple,
who would always come over from Germany on their bikes.
They were called the Schmitz.
They rode a bike all the way from Germany.
They would come over, spend a week with us and then travel on.
They were like family, my Mum would always make room.
We would all get bumped from our rooms
to give them another guest room.
My Mum made everyone feel like it was their house;
they would come in and they had a key to the house.
They could come in and go out.
It was just a great gift.
It is that sense of hospitality, boys and girls,
that Jesus is talking about with God, his Father’s house.
Jesus says there are many dwelling places in my Father’s house;
and I am going to prepare a place for you.
He says, he is going to prepare a place for the disciples.
Now the disciples were a little confused.
They are like, “Well, we don’t know where you are going.
Where are you going?”
Jesus says, “Well, you know where I’m going.
I’m going to the Father.”
They didn’t really understand that he meant eternal life.
He was going to die and he was preparing a place for them
in his Father’s house; in his spiritual Father’s house.
And then they asked him a little confusedly “Where are you going?”
And Jesus said, “Well, you know the way.”
And the disciples said, “We don’t know the way.”
And Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
All you have to do is follow me and you will get to the Father.
That is the way into the Father’s house.”
Boys and girls, we are called to make room in our house for Jesus.
That is what you are celebrating today;
it is your First Communion
and you promise when you receive Communion
that you will become what you receive.
You are promising to become the Body of Christ for others.
And what that means is that you have to make room in your house,
the house of your heart, for Jesus.
And that just doesn’t happen on one day of the week
when we gather here on Sundays.
That is in a sense both the beginning and the end of the week for us
but we do it every night when we pray.
Every day, when we pray, we are making room for Jesus in our hearts
and that is what we have to do
because there are so many other voices out there.
Our hearts can fill up with lots of stuff;
it can fill up with lots of emotion that can be a distraction.
Also, it can fill up with lots of other desires to do other things;
Jesus says, “Focus on me;
make room for me in your heart;
and I will always be there in your heart.
And at the end of it all, I will have a place for you too.”
That is really awesome to do but you have to make room for it.
You have to make room for Jesus.
And there is also somebody else you have to make room for in your heart.
You have to make room for your brothers and sisters;
your family and other people.
Now, you’ve all got brothers and sisters. Right?
Sometimes, your brothers and sisters
are not always easy to get along with. Are they? Huh?
But what we have to do is to make room for them
and their mistakes in our hearts.
When we make room for them, we make room for their mistakes;
when they make mistakes, well, we need room for that.
Why? Because they are human just like we are
and we make mistakes too.
Boys and girls why do we do that?
Because the Lord does that for us.
When we make mistakes, the Lord says to us that’s okay
and he leaves room in his heart for us.
Boys and girls, it is important to leave room for Jesus.
It is also important to leave room for your brothers and your sisters,
your Mum and Dad who make room in their home for you
so you make room in your home,
the home of your heart for them;
and for any time they do things
that maybe we do not think is the best thing.
But that is not enough.
We also have to make room for other people.
People who do not have people around them to love them;
people who are lonely; people who are hurting;
people who have lost a loved one; people who are broken;
maybe some things have happened and we don’t understand.
And you know, sometimes that comes across
when maybe someone is acting out at school;
or somebody is saying things that are mean;
that most often has nothing to do with us,
most often it is because something is going on in their life
and we want to leave room for them;
make room for them to make mistakes;
room for them to be who they are.
And why? Because Jesus does that for us.
Boys and girls, today when you receive for the first time in your hands
and you say, “Amen,” each of you is promising to
become what you receive: the Body of Christ for others.
And you are promising to make room for Jesus,
make room for your family,
and make room for others in your heart.
Is that a deal? All right.
Now to the adults here, I make it sound so easy. Don’t I?
You and I all know that it is a real challenge.
We have to make room for Jesus in our heart
because that requires a commitment of time;
and that time is competitive, competed by what?
Competed by all the other voices out there;
all the other things that we have to do;
and by the way, a lot of them are all good,
these are not bad things we are trying to do.
They are good things, but we must carve out that time
and leave room for Jesus in our heart.
It just doesn’t happen. It has to be chosen.
And that is what discipleship is all about.
We have to give them witness of what we are doing;
of being men and women of prayer.
We have to then leave room for the mistakes of others
in our hearts too because, let’s face it,
we know everyone else makes lots of mistakes.
Maybe us every now and then.
But them, they make lots of mistakes
and we make some every now and then.
But we need to leave room for that. Why?
Because if we want them to always be perfect
then we’re going to be jumpy as soon as they make mistakes.
And we know they will because we do.
We make lots of them.
We leave room for that.
Most importantly, Pope Francis is constantly calling us
to make room for those who are on the periphery;
those you are on the furthest extreme;
those who feel left out;
those who feel like they do not belong
whether it be here at Church;
or whether it be in their own families;
or whether it be in society.
It is on us that each of our boys and girls are going to look to for witnesses.
And who are we making room for?
We are making room for Jesus.
We are making room for our family.
We are making room for those who are most in need.
Today, there are many dwelling places in our Father’s house
and we are called to make room for them all.
