16th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary

 I have shared before that out in Madison, Ohio, where I grew up, my family ran a business—a banquet facility, party center and catering business. My mother ran the business, hired and fired employees, managed the finances, planned events with clients—business parties and weddings and quinceañeras, while my father managed the kitchen staff and was the head cook, making sure that the prime rib and the manicotti and pork tenderloin and red skinned potatoes, green beans, and cheesy vegetables were all delicious and ready to be served at the precise moment. 

A lot of lessons from growing up in the family business, lessons from my parents about management and hospitality and service play out in my priesthood. Like my mother managing the business—being a pastor requires the ability to coordinate various moving pieces, plan events, and meet people where they are about their ideas. Like my father in that hot kitchen preparing high-quality meals for a variety of palettes for 30 years, being a pastor requires attention to detail, enduring very long hours at times. Both my father and mother had to remain very patient in the face of the occasional belligerent or irrational criticism, not that a pastor ever has to deal with that…but in the end, family business for us was about helping people celebrate—as is the priesthood, celebrating our faith, celebrating the eucharist.

And I was thinking about my family, involved for decades in the hospitality business—feeding all those hundreds of thousands of people over the years, in light of our first reading, where we read of Abraham and Sarah receiving and feeding guests—the hospitality they showed to these strangers.

Now, hospitality in the ancient world was much more than gathering with your family for big events. Travelers often had to rely upon the hospitality of strangers to aid them in their journeys. 

The Mosaic law is explicit about the necessity of hospitality. Strangers, like the poor, widows, and orphans, should be shown special generosity allowed to glean the produce of ones fields. The prophets also reiterate this teaching. Isaiah says, “Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.” And for those who do not, proverbs offers this warning: “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered” 

Now of course, hospitality is not always convenient or easy. Abraham and his household, in the first reading, were on a pilgrim journey of their own when those three guests arrived unexpectantly. Hospitality often costs us something, but it fulfills the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

In receiving the stranger, feeding him, clothing him, being generous with him, we care for the Lord himself. The Lord himself teaches this, incorporating a teaching on hospitality into his description of who will inherit heaven: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me . . .Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these my brethren, you did it to me”

Hospitality has been long esteemed as a Christian virtue. Written in the 6th century, the rule of St. Benedict outlines how the monks were to treat their guests with hospitality:  “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, “I came as a guest, and you received Me.” The Benedictines became known for their generous hospitality to travelers and pilgrims. St. Benedict writes, “As soon as a guest is announced, therefore, let the Superior or the brethren meet him with all charitable service… In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims. the greatest care and solicitude should be shown, because it is especially in them that Christ is received”

In the Gospel today, in the Lord’s visit to the home of Martha and Mary we see another dimension of hospitality. Martha was very busy in the duties of hospitality ensuring that the Lord was received well. She showed respect and love by the hospitality she offered.

Mary shows us another aspect of hospitality: Mary is praised by the Lord himself for sitting down and listening to him. The Lord has much wisdom to share with us when we listen to him speaking through strangers. To break bread with a stranger you learn how the Lord has been working in their lives, you open their heart to their plights and challenges, and also what keeps them going.

Also, think of how often in the Gospels the Lord is found ministering in the context of hospitality: all those dinners eating with sinners, teaching, correcting, allowed him to meet them where they were with the truth of the Gospel. He shows us that we need to get to know people in order to share truth with them.

When we talk about evangelization, that doesn’t necessarily mean going to door with pamphlets about Catholicism, though we probably need to start doing a bit more of that. Evangelization is also accomplished around table, or at least opening our homes and hearts to others. St. John Paul II writes, “Welcoming our brothers and sisters with care and willingness must not be limited to extraordinary occasions but must become for all believers a habit of service in their daily lives”

As community, as society seem to be crumbling around us, Christians needs to preserve the practice of inviting people around their table—showing them the kindness we would show to Christ. 

Look for an occasion this week to create an opportunity for fellowship, to show hospitality, to invite, to listen to strangers, maybe even invite your pastor over to the house with some fellow parishioners and a fallen away Catholic member or two. Consider how we as a parish are being called to exert extra effort to invite and welcome guests to the table of the Lord.

For Abraham and Sarah, their generosity in showing hospitality became an conduit for miraculous grace to work in their lives—Sarah in her 80s became pregnant. So too Martha and Mary in their hospitality, their service of the Lord, their listening to the Lord, became a conduit to deep intimacy with Him.

So too, when we open our homes, open our lives, open our hearts to the stranger, to the guest—God blesses us, and brings peace and wisdom to our homes, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.