It’s usually a joy to welcome a loved one, a relative, or a friend we haven’t seen in a while, and the duty of hospitality makes us want to organize everything and do our best to make the person who comes to visit comfortable and have a good impression of our home and our affection.
Photo: Anton/ Unsplash
Newsroom (14/12/2024 21:24, Gaudium Press) It’s best to start by changing the bed linen, even if the guest room hasn’t been used for so long; it may smell of mold. No! Tidying up the living room is more important, it’s the first thing the visitor will see; the bedroom gives you time to tidy up afterward. And that pile of dishes in the sink? I’d forgotten that detail! There’s no point taking care of that with an empty pantry! There’s only milk, onions, and water in the fridge! And those toys scattered around? Kids, start putting everything together! And no sneakers lying around! Put them all away now! The doorbell! My God, did she come early?
This little chaos is the panorama of a family preparing for the arrival of a visitor. Suddenly, the mess, which has become routine and which no one cares about, comes into view and becomes a cause for despair. After all, the visitor is coming, and now how can you manage to tidy up and make the house look presentable?
Even if the family is more organized and things naturally stay in place, the arrival of a visitor always provokes the need to make the environment more harmonious and pleasant, perfume the house, put out flowers, prepare some more elaborate dishes, and, depending on the visitor, open a bottle of wine saved for a special occasion.
Two important lessons
Although there are visitors whose presence doesn’t cause much pleasure, it’s usually a joy to welcome a loved one, a relative, or a friend we haven’t seen in a while, and the duty of hospitality leads us to want to organize everything and do our best to make the person who comes to visit us comfortable and have a good impression of our home and our affection. We can and should learn two valuable lessons from this:
The first: why do we usually only worry about keeping the house in order, clean, tidy, and beautiful when we are going to receive a visitor? Why don’t we do this daily, for ourselves and our loved ones?
Our home is our first church, it’s the sacred temple to which we invite God (or at least we should) to dwell with us; why do we neglect it? Why do we leave broken things untidied, clothes and shoes unpacked, dishes to be washed later, and rooms closed up without opening the window to freshen the air?
The second: we are traveling and one day we will arrive at our destination and be guests in God’s house. Of course, everything there is perfect, but how happy will he be to know that, after a long, difficult, and bumpy journey, we will arrive at his house?
Surely, even without dirty dishes in the sink, musty rooms, clothes, and toys strewn about, he will want to prepare heaven to receive us and he will want to decorate and embellish it even more for our arrival.
If the departure was like that, imagine the arrival!
There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t sad in that solemn atmosphere, however, it was a sadness filled with the joy of imagining how this holy soul would be received in Heaven.
With what joy Our Lady must have decorated everything, with flowers in such quantity and of such fragrance and beauty that they would have dwarfed the hundreds of wreaths received during the funeral!
I can imagine the Saints of God, whose day had been chosen for this passing, all gathered there, those in the front rows transmitting the news to the others: “He’s coming, he’s coming! St. Michael is already unlocking the doors. Now he’s coming!”
Of course, these are only conjectures, after all, as the Apostle St. Paul says, it is impossible to imagine what “the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man penetrated, the things which God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). And if this was the farewell ceremony, my imagination is too small to make up the arrival party.
Blessed Sacrament Chapel – Casa Lumen Prophetæ, Mairiporã (SP) – Photo: Ignacio Montojo
Temples of stone and flesh
A pleasant idea of this place – which fills us with joy and hope – is Monsignor John’s own home, that is, the various buildings in the architectural style he designed, scattered in different places, not only for his use and enjoyment and that of his spiritual children but specially prepared to receive visitors: the chapels, churches, and basilicas of the Heralds of the Gospel. If the truth be told, you can’t enter one of them and not get a glimpse of what Heaven is like!
This man, loved by many, hated and despised by some, undoubtedly marked the history of the Church. Perhaps it will take years, or even centuries, for the importance of his mission to be fully understood.
He taught us, by example, that the way we take care of our home should be a reflection of the way God takes care of Heaven for us.
Anyone who has visited one of the churches built by Monsignor João has never found a flower out of place, a color out of harmony with the whole, a sound that breaks the sacredness.
And anyone who has had the opportunity to stand in front of him – whether it be his own person, who has been with us for 85 years, or his sons and daughters, who we can call other “Joons” – has never seen a wrinkle in his clothes, a strand of hair out of place, a slight detraction from his dignity.
Temples of stone and temples of flesh that reflect in everything the living image of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the love he has for his Church and for each one of us.
Faced with these funerals, such an unusual experience and so carefully prepared, I was left with the lesson I try to pass on to those who read this: we can always keep our homes tidy and clean, ready to receive any visitor without any hassle.
In particular, may we always make it ready to receive Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is paying us a surprise visit today, and who will one day welcome us into his home and rejoice at our arrival.
May Monsignor João’s house, life, and farewell serve as an example to all of us.
By Afonso Pessoa
Compiled by Dominic Joseph