C Cycle -16th Sunday - July 18, 2010
Hospitality and welcoming mentality!
There is a story of a good wife who apologized to her unexpected guests for serving the apple pie without cheese. Then Tony, the little boy of the family slipped quietly away from the table for a moment, and returned with a cube of cheese, which he laid on the guest's plate. The visitor smiled in recognition of the
lad's thoughtfulness, popped the cheese into his mouth, and then
remarked: "Tony you must have sharper eyes and a better heart than your mother. Where did you find the cube cheese?"
The boy replied with a flush of pride: "It was in the rat-trap."
Sharper eyes and bigger heart – Good eyes and a generous heart
Good eyes to see and generous heart to give!
Hospitality is the theme for today’s reflection! A person who is very hospitable will have a better eye sight to see and bigger heart to give.
Hospes venit christus venit! Guest comes, Christ comes.
There is no better place to begin the explanation about hospitality than today’s first and gospel readings. The First Reading from the book of Genesis is part of the story about Abraham happily welcoming the heavenly visitors. Even though the reader knows that it was Lord who appeared to Abraham that day, Abraham himself did not know that fact, when three strangers passed by his tent. Abraham rose to the occasion and offered them extraordinary hospitality. Such hospitality was typical of the Bedouin nomads of the Middle East. The three unidentified men arrive in front of Abraham’s tent at the hottest time of the day. Immediately on seeing them, Abraham rushes forward to greet the strangers, bows before them, addresses them as “Lord” and, invites them to partake of his hospitality. He gives them water, washes their feet and let them rest in the shade while he offers to prepare a substantial meal for them to eat. What Abraham does is just a normal expression of hospitality to guests observed during his time. The visitors accept his invitation. Meanwhile Abraham rushes in to look for Sarah, his wife, and tells her to prepare a generous amount of food for these strangers, now their guests. He brings it to them and attends on them as their host. The heavenly visitors then ask for Sarah and they knew her name, and Abraham tells them that she is in the tent. As they take leave they promise to return in a year and by that time they foretell that Sarah will be the mother of a son. This is all the more surprising as Sarah, at this time, was far beyond the child bearing age. But this was the reward for their hospitality granted to them by God himself. It also indicates that for Abraham his faith in the divine word should be as apparent as his hospitality.
In the Gospel passage, we see another example of the same kind of hospitality where Jesus is the guest. The house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus seems to have been a place where Jesus was always welcome and where he could find shelter when things were getting too hot in nearby Jerusalem. Luke indicates that Jesus was welcome there as he was a constant visitor and the presence of Lazarus is not mentioned. The incident described concerns the two sisters only. The story tells us that there were certain customs regulating the activities of men and women while showing hospitality to guests. Generally it was not permitted for a woman of the household to sit with the male visitor or engage him in conversation. They would just extend a greeting and stay discretely away when the male guest was present. Martha is upset that her sister has broken the boundary by sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words. This was equivalent to Mary assuming the role of the man in the house, certainly not an acceptable situation. Martha does her best by requesting Jesus to send her into the kitchen for the preparation of the food and also follow the custom. The shock comes when Jesus indicates that he is well aware of what Mary has done. Not only does it not bother him, he applauds her for it. He clearly says that she has chosen the better thing. The shock of Jesus’ response cannot be overstated. He tells Martha that both the things, namely service and listening are important and both of them manifest service and they are equally praiseworthy.
This story concerning Martha and Mary has often been used by spiritual writers to prove the superiority of the contemplative life over the active, pastoral form of life. That there is need and necessity for some members of Christ’s body, the church, to dedicate their lives solely and entirely to meditation and prayer needs no proof. Each member of the body can and must help the other members. Most Christians cannot give much time for prayer and contemplation of God. There are members who are set apart for this purpose. With the material needs provided for by other members they can act in the name of the whole body. It is God himself who has given them a special calling for the contemplative life. But the correct lesson which the story of Martha and Mary gives us is that we must not let the affairs of this life, innocent they might be in themselves, prevent us from attending primarily to the one affair that really matters, namely our future life. The emphasis is on Martha and not on Mary. In her anxiety to be an excellent host she spreads out all her energies to prepare an excellent meal. She had no time to listen to the master’s words of divine wisdom. Her work was excellent and praiseworthy yet she should not have excluded from listening to Jesus while doing the good work at the same time. The anxiety of a person may lead to overlook what is more important in life.
1. We need to be hospitable.
2. We need to be in the presence of God. Mother Mary had the presence of God; she went in haste to do the service for the people.
3. What worries and anxieties do I have? Anxieties and worries do not lengthen our life. Burt we know that it will have a lot of repercussions on our life.
Let our participation in the Eucharist this week; bring us to the realization that we become more hospitable and generous towards one another and be a part of the “body of Christ,” as St. Paul mentions in the second reading. May we treat each person of the body of Christ with respect and love. Amen.
