Offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.

Sixteenth Sunday in OT  C 2019

The Scripture message today is that offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.   Perhaps even more important than physical hospitality is simply listening to one another.

A man attending a crowded Sunday Mass refused to take off his hat when asked to do so by the ushers. Others also asked him to remove his hat, but he remained obstinate. The priest was perturbed, too, and waited for the man after the service.

He told the man that the church was quite happy to have him as a guest, and invited him to join the church, but he explained the traditional decorum regarding men's hats and said, "I hope you will conform to that practice in the future."

"Thank you Father," said the man. "And thank you for taking time to talk to me. It is good of you to invite me to join the congregation. In fact, I joined it three years ago and have been coming regularly ever since, but today is the first time that anyone paid attention to me. After being an unknown for three years, today, by simply keeping on my hat on, I have had the pleasure of talking with the ushers, several of the congregants and you. Thanks!"

The scriptures are about welcoming - about hospitality. It is about noticing the other and being attentive to the other.  We all need to ask ourselves the question where are we on the giving and the receiving of hospitality and friendship in our parish community?

Today’s readings tell us two very different meal stories.

In the first Scripture reading, Father Abraham is the host who spares absolutely nothing in welcoming strangers to his home.   Abraham looking up saw three men standing nearby.  When he saw them, he ran from the entrance to greet them, to welcome them, to provide extravagant hospitality and a warm meal for them.

Abraham’s story reminds us that we never know in what guise God will show up.  Luckily, he did not live in a gated community.  Abraham’s servants were tasked with hospitality rather than security.

The first reading is about strangers being entertained and the people didn’t know that the Lord was visiting them.  When we open our heart and home to the stranger and the neighbor we are receiving God into our lives.  The Indian poet Tagore writes – “and when you left I saw God’s footprints on the floor.

As with Abraham in the first reading, God may be coming to us as the one in need.  If our hearts are not generous and welcoming, how often have we turned God away and in turn failed to experience the generosity He wants to bestow on us.  Abraham shows us that the welcome we offer to the stranger is the welcome we offer to God.  Christ is received in every guest.

Offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.  Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality to the three mysterious visitors leads to the revelation that they will have a son.

In the Gospel account, Jesus, going along a road, came to a village and was welcomed into a house.  There one sister, having to get the meal, complained that the other sister just sat and listened to Jesus; and Jesus says that this second sister, named Mary, had chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.

The traditional interpretation of this passage points to the distinction between an active service spirituality and the more prayerful listening spirituality.  In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, there is a place for service, and there is a place for prayerfulness.  We spend a lifetime seeking the balance between the two ways of discipleship.

Lord, there is a Martha and Mary within each of us.

            -a part of ourselves which is busy and active,

            -another part which sits at your feet and listens trustingly to your word.

We need our active side to accomplish your will, but the listening is the best part, and we must not allow it to be taken from us.

Martha’s major error was to let the menu overshadow the encounter with Jesus.     Martha let agitation about the kitchen cancel out the nourishment that comes from being in Jesus’ presence.  We need the nourishment that comes from the kitchen table; we also need the spiritual nourishment that comes from the Lord Himself.  Isn’t it true that hospitality’s most important dimension is listening attentively to your guests?

As we reflect on our spiritual side, remember the truth that we can do many holy things without ever becoming holy.  There may be much action in our lives, very worthwhile action, but we need first to listen to the Lord in prayer before we can be people of action.  Is our active life leading us to deepen our encounter, our relationship with the Lord Jesus?

Jesus is not telling Martha that her work is not important, nor is he commending Mary for doing nothing.  He is simply reminding his followers that if we want to serve Him, we must first listen to Him.  We need to be people of prayer before we are people of action.

Martha and Mary serve together as partners in a living Church. Thanks be to God there is both a Martha and a Mary to the spiritual dynamic of St. Joseph’s Church.   May we learn a lesson from Mother Theresa.   Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity devote an hour to the adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament before going to serve Jesus in the suffering people they find in the streets.   Please God, may we never lose sight of the ways we encounter the Lord in our prayer.  Hospitality’s most important dimension is listening attentively to your guests.

May we embrace both the Martha and the Mary that is within us.

Have a Blessed Day.

What would it take for us to live by the values of the founders of this great nation, and what would it take for us to be more faithful to the mission given to us by Jesus?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,  that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In reflecting on these words taken from the second paragraph of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, we must say there are many ways in which we are not all equal.  Some people enjoy the blessings of material prosperity much more than others.  Some people are more academically gifted than others.  Some folks enjoy the blessings of health much more than others.

And so we ask the question:  how is equality shared among us?  The Declaration of Independence says we are all created equal and that we are endowed by our Creator.  The fundamental equality that we all share is that each one of us without exception are God’s beloved sons and daughters.  The Declaration of Independence has it right when it says we are created equal, and that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Indeed the equality envisioned by the founders of this great nation is a Gospel truth that is to be celebrated.  We are God’s beloved, and that we are to relate to one another in ways that reflect that equality.

As we celebrate the Fourth of July weekend and as we give thanks to God for the many blessings we enjoy as citizens of this country that we deeply love, it is good to pause and reflect on being American and being Catholic.

For example, what is the freedom we aspire to as Americans and what is the freedom we aspire as the disciples of Jesus?  As Americans, it is easy for us to lose track of the meaning of freedom that was given to us by our founding fathers and mothers.

Sometimes as Americans we think of freedom as the right to self-expression, to express my individuality in any way I wish and at any time I wish.  This is my right as an American, thank you very much.

This overly individualistic view of freedom needs to be balanced and corrected by a Gospel sense of freedom and discipleship.  As St Paul says, Christ has set us free – free to serve, free to love, free to celebrate that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Freedom for a disciple isn’t just about individualism.  It is the freedom to be about building up the Kingdom of God in the here and now; it is the freedom to serve; it is the freedom to wash the feet of God’s poor.

From today’s Gospel, twenty centuries ago, Jesus summoned 72 committed people and sent them, two by two, to communicate God’s love, to bind up wounds, and to be peacemakers in a troubled world.  These ordinary people took with them no great plan, no set speech, no “how-to” manual.  They brought only their faith, their trust, and their experience of Jesus.  Jesus knew they would make mistakes; nevertheless, he involved them in his mission and gave them his authority.

Jesus may have sent them out without purse, bag, and sandals, but he did not send them out without advice.  Yes, they were to live simply.  The disciples of Jesus are to experience freedom in that simplicity.  They are to be missionaries for the reign of God.

Flash forward now twenty centuries to July 7,2019.  We are missioned to share in the mission and ministry of Jesus.  This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  We need to leave the baggage behind that keeps from focusing on our mission of witnessing to the love of Jesus in our community.  We need to leave behind the baggage of old hurts, of grudges that we have been holding on too long, of prejudices that keep us from recognizing in our neighbor one of God’s beloved.

The Gospel invites us to reflect on the truth that Jesus sends all of us out to be missionaries.  As American Christians, we have a dual citizenship.  We certainly are citizens of America; but as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, we are also citizens of and belong to the Reign of God.

What would it take for us to  live  by the values by the founders of this great nation and what it take for us to be more faithful  to the mission that Jesus gave to His original apostles and disciples?

As we celebrate our nation’s anniversary of our independence, may we remember and celebrate that indeed we are a nation of immigrants; we celebrate the equality

 we share with one another; we are a nation of welcome and hospitality; we are a nation that fosters peace and provides opportunities for growth for one and all.

May we retain true to these values as Americans.

As disciples, Jesus challenges us in our life’s work, in our relationships, in our personal spirituality to try to instill elements of the Reign of God into American culture.   As we celebrate the great nation that we have been blessed with, let us also be aware of the great gift of faith we have been blessed with. 

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus appointed 72 others to go ahead of him with news of God’s love and peace.  Those 72, in Luke’s view, represented the diverse nations of the world.  Jesus’ mission and message were intended for all.  That work of evangelization continues throughout history.

In sending out the 72,    Luke wants to tell us the mission of Jesus is not only carried forward by the so called experts like priests and religious but it is the responsibility of every believer in Jesus.  Each one of us, as the community of the baptized, are missioned to communicate God’s love, bind up the wounds of our brothers and sisters, and we are to be peace-makers in a troubled world.

The mission of the Church is to carry on the mission of Jesus  --  to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus  forgives us.  The mission of the Church is to lift us and to affirm the dignity of each and every person – regardless of their race, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless of their politics, their religion or whatever difference you can possibly think of.  Today’s Gospel makes clear that all of us are to be missionaries proclaiming this mission.

We are both Americans who are committed to the values of the founders of this great nation.   We are also the disciples of Jesus committed to binding the wounds of our brothers and sisters and we are to be peace-makers in a troubled world.

Have a Blessed Day,