The man to my left said he had first understood it when he was in prison. It was, he said, God's revelation to him that the incarceration, not only of his body, but of his soul was temporary. God had not created him to be kept a prisoner in hell. God was making a highway and, one day, would come and reclaim him for himself and lead him home as a shepherd leads his flock. Among the religious emotions, one we speak too little of is homesickness, longing, yearning.
Advent is the season of yearning.
Advent legitimates our homesickness. In Advent we can give voice to our longing to return to the home we never quite had. It is not our childhood home which was never quite as warm and secure as we remember it. It is not the family gatherings we return to with so much hope over the holidays and which often disappoint us. Jerusalem, our happy home, is not the place on the map to which few of us have been.