Jesus, my friend and constant companion, you are the eternal Word of the Father who became flesh and lived among us.
Some translations of Scripture speak of you “pitching your tent among us,” echoing the tented presence of God in the desert leading the People of Israel into freedom. Today, your apostle Paul is also concerned with tents, saying: “We know that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house built by God for us, an everlasting home not made by human hands, in the heavens.”
In our country at present you well know the crisis we have in putting your friends into tents, waiting for a home to live in, and with many Irish families in temporary lodgings.
May this communion remind us that we are all of us living in tents in this world, that all is temporary until we are invited to our permanent home with you and the Father in the love of the Holy Spirit.
We thank you Lord Jesus for coming into the tent of our heart in this Mass and ask for the grace of more practical compassion for those among us living in tents, waiting for the lorries to come and fold them up.
May our Father, the builder of everlasting homes in the heavens help us to build the necessary, if impermanent homes, we need on this earth in this land.