Exams are over. Dorms have closed down. Faculty are resting. Christmas break — or possibly “Vacation” or “Winter Recess” or just the blank space between “Examinations End” and “Classes Begin” — and, with it, quiet has descended upon the world of higher education.

“Home for the holidays.” That has such a nice ring to it. It smells of balsam, roasting turkey, and cocoa with sugar cookies. It feels as cozy as a hug from grandma, the family dog on your lap, and a long nap under a down comforter.

Or at least it should be like that, but my impression is that young Americas never feel at home — not in the world, not in their bodies, not even at home for the holidays.

Students at our colleges and universities live with such anxiety that they need safe spaces complete with Play-Doh, coloring books and therapy dogs.

Students at our colleges and universities live with such anxiety that they need safe spaces complete with Play-Doh, coloring books and therapy dogs. They can’t possibly engage in normal academic activities when politics don’t tip their direction. They require “trigger warnings” on everything (except movies and violent video games) since something somewhere may offend someone or, even worse, challenge their preconceived notions. And they attack professors and speakers who refuse to tell them that everything they believe and feel is just grand. They also suck down alcohol like cold lemonade on a hot afternoon.

Some call them “snowflakes,” but I don’t like that. “Toughen up,” and, “Walk it off,” won’t heal the wounds of those who find rejection on every side.

If you’re an American, you’re an imperialist, part of a system that oppresses the rest of the world. If you’re a white American, you should feel ashamed, beat your breast, and repent of your racism and “white privilege.” If you’re not white, well, you’re a victim who is never welcome in “white America.” If you’re a white, male, American, your natural misogyny and “toxic masculinity” are an affront. If accused of sexual assault, you’re guilty till proven innocent and good luck with that.

At the same time, no one lets students forget that an undergraduate education is the ticket to success. And given the cost of your education, you had better be a success.

Prep school teachers tell me that parents make sure their children know the cost of their private school education. With all that cash going in, superior outputs are expected. That means getting into an elite college and then finding an elite job. College students, no doubt, hear the same from their parents and everyone knows underemployed and unemployed graduates saddled with crushing college debt.

Add to all this that not even maleness or femaleness is a given. From preferred pronouns on up, you need to create yourself and, through social media and polished resumes, market whatever it is you’ve cobbled together.

As R. R. Reno writes in the December First Things, “For all the talk of ‘inclusion,’ ‘diversity,’ and ‘identity,’ our society cannot do what any shared culture must do, which is to promote Gemeinschaft, the shared sense of belonging that allows us to feel at home in the world.”

In fact, if anything, he notes, “Political correctness compounds rather than alleviates our homelessness. Measures of anxiety and psychological weakness among young people have increased significantly in recent decades. This rise stems, paradoxically, from our efforts to minimize risks, both physical and emotional. We police young people to make sure they don’t say or do anything hurtful or offensive. As a consequence, few learn how to respond to adversity.”

Let me suggest that responding to adversity requires, first and foremost, a home, the place where you are loved because you belong.

Each year we remember that God’s son was born homeless in a borrowed stable far away from his parents’ hometown of Nazareth. After living in Bethlehem, the Holy Family was homelessness in Egypt for years.

John 1:9-11 reminds us, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

Is there a way that Jesus’ homelessness can speak to the anxiety of this generation?

Well, students and others are at home — possibly even at your home. Many will be “stuck” attending your church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The homeless Jesus invites them home. “In my Father’s house,” he said, “are many rooms. … And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).

Now is the time to offer a home for the holidays.