Dear Friends,
The first reading and gospel for this Sunday give us examples of hospitality and invite us to reflect upon our own approach to hospitality. People who have gone on our IXIM mission trips to Guatemala often remark that we could learn a lot from people of other cultures about what it means to be hospitable. They realize in how they were welcomed into the villages and into the homes of others, that we in the United States do not do the same when we have guests visiting us. Frequently, people will comment, “we are being received like superstars and we have done nothing to deserve it.” When I hear those comments, I try to teach that the generous hospitality we are receiving is not about who we are, it is about who they are. They would do the same for any visitors. It is who they are.
For many of us, our home is a refuge, a place to be alone. Our homes are not for strangers, they are for family. Our homes are places where we can escape from the world and “finally be ourselves”. But hospitality, in its true form, simultaneously affirms that the home ought to be a place of shelter, of protection, separated from the world at large; but also that it ought to be open to the world—not to become like the world, but to bring spiritual consolation and conviction to those who come to us.
Hospitality is not one option among many for the uses of a home, but part of its essence. It encompasses inviting others for carefully prepared meals and welcoming the last minute request for a cup of coffee and a listening ear; it includes the intimacy of a family meal and the openness of house-concerts, neighborhood picnics, and bonfire nights; it may be as brief as someone just stopping by or as long as a displaced family needs to find new shelter. In these and all its other forms, hospitality reveals the true nature of the home to both dweller and guest.
Like the readings this Sunday, scripture is filled with accounts of hospitality: Abraham’s feasting with the three angelic visitors, Abigail’s supplying of provisions to David, Peter’s mother-in-law serving Jesus immediately after her healing, Zacchaeus entertaining his motley crowd, Matthew inviting in fellow sinners to eat, Mary and Martha hosting Jesus and his many disciples, the father killing the fattened calf for his prodigal son, the shepherd holding a feast when he finds the lost sheep, to name a few. By contrast, poor hospitality is the chief offense of Sodom and of the Pharisees.
Hospitality means offering our home to the work of God in the world. Jesus chooses the home and the synagogue as the central place for his work. The author of Hebrews exhorts, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.” People may be thinking that their hospitality is not important work, insignificant, unspiritual, reaching only a few. When it is in fact at the center of Jesus’ mission. To welcome guests demands time, labor, money, thought, and one’s own self, both before, during, and after any particular event. However, this expenditure of energy has the potential to honor and fulfill, rather than demean and exhaust, both those who give and those who receive it. Think about your own experience of receiving hospitality from someone who knows how to give it. How enriched you are by the experience. How much you honor them because of what they gave to you.
My grandmother always said that guests are good for the home. I thought that she said that to get us to clean our rooms. However, I have come to know that hospitality sets the home apart from and against the most self-centered, individualistic currents of our age. Hospitality affirms the wonder and uniqueness of every person. It teaches us to be kind and courteous. It insists on patience and beauty over against efficiency and utility. Hospitality creates a culture in the home, which those who dwell there come to love and defend. If you live in a home that truly offers hospitality, then you will not want to go somewhere else, but you will be in the place where everyone wants to be.
Both Martha and Mary offer hospitality in the gospel today. Each are honoring their guest. Jesus is simply reminding us that in the many details of hospitality, it is the guest that matters most. The guest is always Jesus. Peace,
Fr. Damian