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Most of us long to be “at home” for Christmas: but this is not always possible. As we move through Advent towards the birthday of Jesus, we can perhaps take comfort in the fact that the first in the communion of saints—the adults in the Holy Family—were also not “at home”. Obedient to random human edicts, attentive to the messages of angels, Mary and Joseph had to be flexible about their plans. When we consider the momentous nature of the Incarnation, it might seem strange that it should have occurred in such a situation of flux. Or perhaps it is not strange at all. For God to become man, it was probably necessary that he tread lightly on this earth. Whilst Herod sat in his palace, job security guaranteed by his Roman rulers, the Son of God was carried hither and thither like a dispossessed person.

The upside is that no one who travels with the Holy Family will ever be truly homeless, since the Child they carry with them acts as a guarantor on a home that no earthly power can take away. The Christian’s true home is an interior, not an exterior, castle. It can be found all over the world, in every tabernacle, where behind miniature doors the real presence of Christ continues to dwell until the end of time. In Mary, “become for us the heaven that bears God”, as Saint Ephrem put it, “he has grown small to make us great”.