Christian Hospitality

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
17 August 2014

        My friends, Jesus just did something scandalous.

        He welcomed a Gentile to the table of the Father.

        He welcomed someone outside of His circle of believers to know of the mercy of God because of her faith.

        Jesus welcomed this woman to know God’s mercy because, somewhere in her life, she heard His invitation to experience the love of the living God.

        And two thousand years later, He’s still inviting and welcoming others to know the love and mercy of God.

        We are among those to whom Jesus has extended that invitation.

        But here’s the thing: We have to do more than just except the invitation to know God’s love and mercy. We must extend the invitation, ourselves, to those in our lives. We, too, must invite and welcome others to come to know Jesus Christ.

        This is the heart of the New Evangelization, for Christian hospitality is at the very core of the invitation to know Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

        The great Catholic spiritual author Henri Nouwen once explained that: Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.

        This is the mission of every Catholic parish. This is the mission of the Church. This is the mission of every person who follows the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is our mission, because it was – and still is! – the mission of Jesus Christ.

        However, hospitality will not simply happen because Jesus tells us to practice such a virtue. Hospitality will not simply happen because we happen to like what Pope Francis says. Hospitality will not simply happen because Bishop Zubik says it’s important for the Diocese, or Father Bob and I saying that it’s a priority for the parish.

        Hospitality – Christian hospitality – will only be practiced when that “creation of free space where the stranger can enter” is created in the heart of the Christian disciple. If we truly wish to be a community where love can dwell, then we must first experience the love of Christ ourselves, and graciously accept the invitation to come and learn from Him. Only then can we become individuals formed into a community mirrored after the image of Christ.

        Saint Benedict, in his Rule, reminds us that “all . . . should be received like Christ,” meaning that we should welcome all who pass through the doors in our life as if we were encountering Christ, Himself. This is a most difficult thing to do, for this means that we must leave behind all the prejudices, assumptions, judgments, gossip, phobias, fears and anything else that hardens our hearts to welcoming the Christ in the other while being Christ to the other.

        Thus, the invitation we extend to others must be one that we are willing to live out ourselves. It is a choice that we must make daily. It is a way of life that we must choose to live authentically every day. This in no way means that we will live it out perfectly, but, nevertheless, this means that we will attempt to live it out faithfully.

        This invitation is a call to conversion – for ourselves and others. The practice of hospitality, then, is to help others understand the errors in their ways, and assist them in conforming their lives to Christ’s.

        This invitation is a call to encounter Christ. The practice of hospitality, then, is to allow others to encounter Christ through us – as individuals and as a community – as we encounter Christ through them.

        This invitation is a call to witness God’s love and mercy in action. The practice of hospitality, then, is to put our faith in action as we minister to the needs of our brothers and sisters.

        This invitation is a call to gather the nations into the house of the Lord. The practice of hospitality, then, is to bring others to know the graciousness of our God through the celebration of our worship, becoming a place where prejudices, judgments and phobias cease; a place where we will truly worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

        This invitation is, then, an invitation to bring all into the fullness of Faith found in the Church – to be united with Christ and His Body through the reception of His Body and Blood. Our hospitality, then, must be the practice of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the way we live our lives. Only through our unhindered practice of mercy and justice, free of prejudices and fear, will others come to know of the invitation from Christ for the conversion of their lives and the practice of hospitality which flows from the Heart of God.

        Because of her faith, Jesus entered into a grave scandal by welcoming the Canaanite woman into the circle of believers. But because of her faith, Jesus allows us to see this woman as the example of those who truly hear the invitation of Christ, seek Him out, and create that space where the stranger can enter and become a friend.

        Because of our faith, then, this place becomes that space where all are received as Christ, for it is here that the Heart of God is opened so that all may know the call to conversion, the call to witness our faith in action, the call to witness and encounter Christ, and the call to become one with the Lord.

        Christian hospitality is scandalous because it welcomes everyone to know the intimate love of God; to experience that Love without prejudice, without fear; to extend to others to live that same Love in the ecstatic union that we experience here, now, in Word and Sacrament. Christian hospitality is scandalous because it embodies the Good News that God calls all to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Christian hospitality is scandalous because Jesus, Himself, is scandalous, because He invites both saints and sinners to follow Him.

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Enjoy the journey . . .