16th Sunday Year C by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: Hospitality: The Key that unlocks blessings
Readings: (1st: Gen 18, 1–10; 2nd: Col 1, 24–28; Gosp: Lk 10, 38–42
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, last Sunday, the Church taught us that our neighbour includes anyone who is need of help, and she instructed us not to turn our eyes from the needy. This Sunday, the Church wants to teach us the importance and benefits of hospitality in the life of every Christian. Going beyond the importance of hospitality, the Church also wants to teach us the necessity of dedicating time to listen to the voice of Jesus even in the course of performing acts of hospitality.
Dear friends, for many years, Abram and Sara have been praying to God for the fruit of the womb, and they have, on many occasions, received promises from God that they will have children. However, it is remarkable to note that it was an act of hospitality or charity to strangers that brought about the fulfilment of the promise of fertility which God made to Abram and Sarah. Act of hospitality to total strangers, who turned out to be angels, as we read in the first reading of today, opened the door of blessings for Abram and Sarah.
It is always said that ‘in giving out, you lose in order to get something bigger and better.’ In the letter to the Hebrews 13: 2, the word of God said: “Remember to welcome strangers in your homes. Some people by so doing have welcomed angels in their homes without knowing it.” This was exactly what happened to Abram and Sarah. They were just performing an action recommended by their faith and custom, and never knew the strangers were angels.
In the same way, our Christian faith and the custom of our various countries recommend that we treat strangers with love and be hospitable to them. However, the security challenges of our world have made it difficult for many people to trust the genuineness of those who come to them as strangers. These concerns have been making it difficult for many people to open their door to strangers. Also, the economic difficulties of our time have made it even more difficult for many people to open their hands of charity to other people
But today, dear friends, the Church wants us not to hide behind security threats and economic hardship to shy away from charity and hospitality. That is to say that the Church does not want us to stop our acts of charity and hospitality because of economic hardships and threats to security. Rather, she wants us to realize that every act of charity and hospitality rendered to another person brings us closer to God’s plans for us and to the fulfilment of God’s promises in our lives, the same way it happened in the lives of Abram and Sarah.
A saying goes this way: venit hospes, venit Christus, which means, when a guest comes, Christ comes. My dear friends, by closing our doors to strangers, many of us have missed opportunities of meeting with Jesus and have also refused Him entry into our houses; by closing our arms to strangers on the street, many of us have denied help to angels; by not treating our guests well, many of us have missed opportunities to entertain angels and Jesus.
In the Gospel reading of today, Martha did not fail to host Jesus in her house. She made sure that she gave Jesus the best of hospitalities. However, Jesus used that great occasion to teach us how best to take care of our guest and how to balance our active life and our contemplative life. Jesus was a guest in the house of Martha and Mary. While Martha was busy preparing the material things needed to entertain their guest, Mary was listening to the teaching of Jesus. For Martha, the action of Mary was wrong, but for Jesus, both the actions of Mary and Martha were right, but that of Mary was better and should be chosen first.
Thus, while the church calls us not to run away from charity and hospitality, she also invites us to always set our priorities right, not allowing our actions for the wellbeing of others to distract us from the time we should spend with Jesus. Our watchword should always be ‘Jesus Christ first, then everything else.’
From this gospel episode, we should learn that high priority should be given to listening to the word of God and staying close to Jesus even in the midst of our social activities for the wellbeing of humanity. If we throw away a close relationship with Jesus in the course of our actions for the good of others, we end up as mere philanthropists. Our life should not just be spent on the work of the Lord, rather, the work of the Lord should always lead us to discover the Lord who owns the work.
It is obvious that many Christians have forgotten this important aspect of our Christian life. Many of us are so distracted today with too many social and material activities (both in the church and in our homes), that we hardly have time for any spiritual reflection. In some of our families, we pay attention to every other thing, but little or no attention to the spiritual growth of the members of our families. Many Christians have time for all social activities, but little or no time for praying together or studying the word of God together. Many Christians donate millions of money to the church, but have no time to spend with Jesus. In the midst of your social activities for the church and your community, dedicate some time for communion with God.
Another important lesson from today’s gospel is that a very important part of hospitality is paying attention to the guest. At times, what our guest needs from us is not just material things, but our attention. Dear friends, Jesus is the guest in our homes, He wants us to sit close to Him as a family, paying attention to what he wants to tell us, because He has something new to teach us every day. Thus, we must not allow anything to prevent us from opening our doors to Him, nor are we to allow anything to take away our attention from His presence.
Peace be with you and your family.
Fr Isaac Chinemerem Chima