16th Sunday of Ordinary Time (21.07.13)
HOSPITALITY
Hospitality is an attractive word. It can arouse memories of welcome and warmth, of food and geniality. Hospitality features in our Scripture for the 16th Sunday of the Year. It is central to our First Reading from the Book of Genesis (18:1-10) that introduces us to Abraham and Sarah. In their world the word hospitality carried meaning unfamiliar to us today. In the Gospel hospitality is also a feature. (Luke 10:38-42)
Creating an authentic mindset with which to read or hear read this extract from the Old Testament Book of Genesis will be time well spent. In our world of globetrotters it’s easy to forget that, until relatively recent times, travel was a dangerous endeavour. There was little or no official protection for those who dared to leave safe confines and trek miles on unfamiliar paths. Inns offering wanderers overnight shelter in Old Testament times were exceedingly primitive. Travellers slept together in a common room, positioned one small level above the animals on which they journeyed. In some ways, Mary and Joseph, in Luke’s Infancy narrative, were fortunate in being relegated to the stable or lower area. They would have a little privacy for the birthing of Jesus. Wayside eateries, as we know them, were unheard of. Travelers carried simple food with them or went hungry.
Abraham was descended from desert dwellers. Something akin to the Bedouin honour code governed their behaviour. If settlement life was primitive, nomadic desert life was all about survival for human and beast alike. For the Bedouin, hospitality is more than a warm feeling. The Bedouin revered hospitality as Christians today revere virtue. Hospitality required that even an enemy must be given shelter and food for some days. Personal poverty did not exempt a Bedouin from the duties of hospitality.
So when three strangers appear at Abraham’s encampment they don’t even have time to ask for hospitality. The Genesis text tells us: “Looking up, Abraham saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground, he said: “Sir, if I may ask you this favour, please do not go on past your servant. Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree. Now that you have come this close to your servant, let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves; and afterward you may go on your way.” The men replied, “Very well, do as you have said.”
This Genesis extract reminds us how alert we should be to the needs of others. Our response should begin before help is requested. It’s a small point, but the Genesis text tells us the time of day when the strangers appear: “the day was growing hot.” Everything is more demanding at siesta time, especially the needs of strangers. Abraham cannot accomplish generous hospitality by himself. “He hastened into the tent and told Sarah, ‘Quick, three measures of fine flour! Knead it and make rolls.’ ”
Note also Abraham’s level of hospitality: “He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it.” People then rarely ate meat. If they did, it was probably lamb or goat meat. Steers were saved for the most important people on the most important occasions. Only after the meal do Abraham and Sarah discover the three men are actually Yahweh God in human form.
There are differing interpretations of the significance of the “three strangers”. While some may choose to see them as an early version of the Trinity, other scholars believe the Genesis author simply employed more than one human to convey Yahweh God’s superhuman personality. The text indicates that genuine hospitality always leads to a discovery of dimensions of God that we had not been aware of previously.
Because of their generosity, Abraham and Sarah will be the recipients of Yahweh’s generosity. Their most fervent wish will be fulfilled. “I will surely return to you about this time next year,” one of the strangers promises, “and Sarah will then have a son.”
Sadly, our Genesis reading for this Sunday ends too abruptly. A most amusing scene immediately follows. Though Sarah isn’t invited to the meal, she’s still, like any good wife of that period, listening behind the tent flap to all that’s going on between her husband and their now well-fed guests. When she hears the promise of a son, she instinctively laughs, presuming the stranger has no idea of her advanced years. The strangers challenge her laughter; she denies it, forcing them to insist, “Yes, you did laugh.” Biblical Hebrew helps us understand this ‘laughter’ exchange. The son to be born to Abraham and Sarah would be named Isaac, the Hebrew word for laughter. With our mindset suitably reconstructed, we are prepared to read or hear read the Genesis extract in a transformed light.
With this text the author of Genesis provided a prelude to Jesus’ New Testament teaching: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34) Offering hospitality to strangers is an important sign of a Christian’s commitment to God. This has wider applications than we may at first appreciate.
In the Gospel for this Sunday, Martha’s rushed activity is contrasted with Mary’s stillness. (Luke 10:38) “Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”
Authentic discernment is part of a loving hospitality. Mary reads Jesus’ needs authentically. His hunger is for human hearts not food. Recall the Gospel incident of Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4:27:
“Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told the people in town, “A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Christ. ” So the people left the town and went to see Jesus. While the woman was in town, Jesus’ followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something!” But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Mary’s ‘hospitality’ was her gift of wholehearted attention to Jesus: ‘The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”’(Luke 10:41)
To come to the present moment, Pope Francis, speaking recently, asked if we, when giving a person in need some financial or other aid, actually looked into the recipient’s eyes or did we avoid meaningful eye contact? Hospitality is challenging in different ways.
Addressing the assembled bishops of Italy, Pope Francis (Thursday 23/05/13) invited them to get rid of “burdens that obstruct healthy apostolic promptness”, and to put themselves “before the flock”. He urged them to know how to be “among” and “behind” their flock, “sharing with the lowly”, to “set aside every form of arrogance” in order “to bend down to all whom the Lord has entrusted to our care, and especially to priests”. Being “among” the flock, the Pope continued, demands above all “being capable of listening to the silent tale of those who are suffering and of sustaining the steps of those who fear they may not make it”. (http://www.news.va)
Christlike hospitality has many applications for all of us. Sometimes, when a stranger starts telling you something, it might be a kindness to listen and empathise rather try to move away or otherwise avoid engaging with that person, who may for you, at that moment, may be Christ himself. Jesus teaches this in his prediction for his second coming (Matthew 25:34ff)
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’