Sacerdos in Aeternum by Rev. Fr. Rommel M. Arcilla:

“I’m Coming Home” (Birtles and Goble)

Mom, I’m coming home

So, take my picture off the wall

I’m coming home, I’ve had enough

Of being alone

Dad, I’ll see you soon

Don’t keep me talking on the phone

You’re wasting time

I’ve got to move, I’m going home

 

(refrain) Since I’ve been away, it gets harder

everyday

I really have a lot to learn

She loved me at the start

 

Then she left and broke my heart

To my home I will return

Now, I will come to you

Back to the only friends I know

I understand, your love is true

I’m coming home (refrain)

Now, I will come to you

So, take my picture off the wall

You understand, I’ve had enough

I’m coming home

Oow… I’m coming home Mumma… Oow…

 

Whenever I drive my car, I will always start listening to the music with this one (I’m Coming Home), just to put myself into the best mood. I started hearing this song when I was in my elementary grades and I really loved this song since that first time when it reached and, maybe found a home, not only in my ears but also in my heart. I really love music and I still know the delineation line between music and noise. This one, for me is music and it puts me to good mood most of the time.

One funny thing in listening to this song while driving came from a comment coming from an unlucky passenger. When he heard the song, he outrightly suggested to look for another song because he felt like it was his last ride and that he felt like he was going back home to the Father.

So, I felt obliged to take his suggestion while laughing, and changed to song to Albert Hammond’s “When I’m Gone”. Finally, the man snapped and asked me to stop and he stepped out of the car with no nothing at all!

I used to sing this song (I’m Coming Home) to my parents every time I come home from the seminary where I studied for 12 long years. For me, coming home to them and to my sisters, was the best experience that I have every month of those seminary years. I always felt being recharged and put back into the “factory settings” of my life and throwing away all those stress and baggage that I may have picked along the way.

 

The Gospel last Sunday was about the homecoming of Jesus to Nazareth, his hometown. People there did not accept Him because they knew Him simply as the carpenter’s son. Can any good come from a mere carpenter? Maybe they had this question in mind when they showed Him that they did not like His presence in their vicinity. So, he performed only a few miracles in His native place and He was so amazed by their disbelief!

I can relate so well with this particular experience of our Lord because I was just a son of a driver, who did not even finish his college education. He was a very joyful soul, though, with a bit of casual friends-with-a-bottle! Up until this time I really do not expect any form of acceptance, be it sincere or devious, from anybody and I also cannot blame them because I also had my share of flaws and misbehaviors. My only simple wish that I will be accepted in His Kingdom, with all my limitations and unworthiness, when my final hour comes.

Home for me is the place where I find solace, joy and inner peace. My home is not limited by space because it can be found anywhere for as long as my beloved ones are present there. As the lyrics of the song puts it: “I will come to you, back to the only friends I know. I understand, your love is true. I’m coming home.” My home is where the people, who accept me as I am, who love me as I am, who care for me with all my carelessness resides… they are my home because with them there is unlimited and unconditional love, a love which got the power to love me even when I am in my unlovable self. I found this home with my parents, both of a happy memory, and my sisters: Margie, Malou, and +Monette. I found this home in the company of my priest-friends and with all other people to whom I can readily show, with no fear at all, that raging little devil inside me. How I wish I can find a home in your homes one day, when all these evil in me are gone with the wind. It is just a wish, though.

Maybe, the real challenge for all of us now is not about gaining popularity, greatness, riches and power. The challenge lies on how we will be able to find a home in each house we walk in to and be accepted. The ultimate challenge is on how we will be accepted in God’s home in heaven.

Good luck everyone on our journey towards His kingdom. God’s kingdom is our real home because love is overflowing in that place.

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