How hospitable would you say you are?

HOSPITALITY

Gen. 18:1-10 & Lk. 10:38-42

Today’s readings give us a rich selection of examples of hospitality.  In the First Reading from Genesis, we heard how Abraham extended a warm welcome and lavish hospitality to three exhausted travellers who turned up suddenly at his door-step.  He promptly offers them some water to wash, a place to rest, and some food to eat.  In entertaining his guests, he had, probably unwittingly, entertained God Himself.  The story contains a revelation in that the three guests symbolise the three Persons of the Trinity.  The fact that Abraham addresses them both in the singular and in the plural is a hint that God is one, and yet exists in three Persons.

Later on, Jesus Himself would declare hospitality to strangers as one of the criteria to be used at the Last Judgement for admission to heaven.  “I was a stranger and you welcomed me…Whenever you welcomed the least of My brothers, you welcomed Me.”

In addition to the hidden revelation of the Trinity, the story also shows how God rewarded Abraham for his hospitality.  Within a year, God promised to give him a son, despite the fact that Abraham’s wife Sarah, was barren and well beyond child-bearing age.

In the Gospel story, we have Martha and Mary showing direct hospitality to God in the person of Jesus.  We know from the Gospel accounts that these two sisters and their brother Lazarus were good friends of Jesus.  He was always welcome in their home, and it is quite conceivable that, during His preaching tours, He and His disciples would have called in there to enjoy the family’s hospitality.  Jesus rewarded them with His loving presence, which was expressed in a very concrete form when He raised Lazarus from the dead.

How can we provide hospitality to the Lord?  We can offer indirect hospitality.  Like Abraham, whenever we welcome others, we are indirectly welcoming the Lord Himself.  We can open the doors of our house to the poor, the homeless and the travellers; and likewise, we can open the doors of our hearts to the sad and the friendless.  We can share our time and resources with those who are journeying on one way or another.  To those who are travelling physically we can offer food and rest, to those who are on an emotional journey in search of love, trust and acceptance, we can offer our ear and our friendship; and finally to those who on a spiritual journey of searching for God, we can offer the riches of our faith in Christ.  The kindness we show to others will come back to us as a blessing.

It is when we receive Holy Communion that we welcome Christ directly into our hearts.  We can use today’s Gospel to examine the degree of devotion and favour with which we receive Him in the Eucharist.  Like Martha, do we prepare for our Lord’s coming by cleansing our heart of sin and adorning it with our good works and virtues?  When we go to receive Communion, do we do so with reverence and love?  And, having received Him, do we make Him welcome in the silence of our hearts and listen to Him attentively as Mary did?  The Eucharist is our most intimate encounter with the Lord.  Let us ask the Lord for a renewal of our love and devotion for this heartfelt sacrament.

The story of Martha and Mary also challenges us to examine whether we are achieving the right balance in our spiritual life.  Martha symbolises the active component of our spiritual life:  all the work we do, both for our livelihood and in the service of others, that is, our employment, our works of charity, hospitality and of liturgical ministry.  Mary, on the other hand, symbolises the “prayer” component of our life:  the time we allocate for Mass, for confession, for listening to and meditating on God’s word in Scripture and for daily prayer, both individually and as a family.  Both active works and prayer are important in our lives.  The Lord certainly appreciated all the work that Martha did to welcome Him.  There was no question about that.  What He did object to was the fact that Martha’s hospitality had been so taken over by her work that she had no time for quiet conversation.  Whilst Jesus was grateful for the meal she cooked Him, He would have been even more grateful for her company had she been able to spare the time as her sister Mary did.

The Gospel story teaches us that activity and prayer are both important components of our spiritual life, but that our activity must flow from our prayer.  If our daily life is so crammed with “doing things” so that we have very little time to sit quietly with the Lord in prayer to speak to Him and listen to Him, then there is a serious imbalance in our life.  We need to re-discover our priorities, and if we are convinced of the importance of prayer, we will certainly allocate adequate time to it.  No matter how busy they may be couples who are in love will somehow find time for each other.  If, we, too, take our relationship with our Lord seriously; we will allocate priority time to prayer in our daily schedule.

Lord Jesus, give us the grace to have the right balance between prayer with You and serving our brothers and sisters.

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