One word unites the Old Testament reading and the Gospel—hospitality. The “woman of influence” who hosts the prophet Elisha and Our Lord extols the reception given to a prophet, a righteous man and God’s little ones.
Hospitality is more than just entertaining. Entertaining can be stressful: wedding, birthday, anniversary, any type of party requires planning. Devising invitations, the guest list, the menu, the seating, and calculating the expenses can be taxing. Sacred Scripture reveals that hospitality is more than simple entertaining. It is held up as a virtue that should be characteristic of every disciple.
The Old Testament contains many accounts and laws that illustrate the power and importance of hospitality, especially to strangers, the poor, widows, and orphans. The Gospels show us hospitality in the life and teaching of Our Lord. He was the recipient of hospitality from friends like Martha, Mary, and Lazarus and was also a guest in the home of tax collectors and sinners.
In his teaching, Our Lord ties hospitality to his description of who will inherit heaven when he presents the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, visiting the sick and imprisoned, to counsel, admonish, to be patient, to forgive, to comfort, and to pray for others.
Hospitality is also highlighted in Our Lord’s parables. Heaven as a marriage feast and when the invited guests decline because they are too busy with other things, the poor, the lame, and the afflicted are invited. Think too of the lavish welcome the father extends to his prodigal son or the hospitality shown by the Good Samaritan.
Ultimately, these teachings come together in the Eucharist when Christ becomes the guest of our souls. Our Holy Communion helps us to welcome and to love others. So, hospitality is more than just entertaining at a party or having your mother in law stay over the weekend. For a disciple it should have an added dimension, a spiritual basis.
Hospitality is less about what we do and more about who we are. It is about serving, encouraging, and giving value to others. That is rather difficult when people are more focused on their cell phones than on the people facing them at table!
It involves lending others our time and attention because in that guest we see and welcome Christ. Fr. Henri Nouwen views hospitality as a form of listening. He says: “Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.”
Our cold and inhospitable world needs the virtue of hospitality—disciples with loving hearts, open ears and eyes that see Christ in those who cross the thresholds of homes and churches. I wonder if we could place over our doors the message, we find at the entrance of nearly every Benediction Abbey: “When a guest enters, Christ enters!”
