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Christian Hospitality

Writer's picture: Immersed in ChristImmersed in Christ

by Fr. David M. Knight




Saturday, November 16, 2024

Thirty-Second Week of the Year

Saint Margaret of Scotland; Saint Gertrude, Virgin; BVM

3 Jn 5-8/Lk 18:1-8 (Lectionary 496)


3John 5-8 urges hospitality toward traveling missionaries who are making the Good News known to others. “We ought to support such persons, so that we may be co-workers in the truth.”

 

Unfortunately, what this makes us think of is visiting priests who come to the parish to preach a “mission appeal” to support the work of their community. This is good. We should help them.


But more important than that is the support we should give to all the people we encounter who are sharing the Good News with others: those who assemble with us at Mass every Sunday; those who are visitors in our parish from other cities; or perhaps from other Christian churches. Every Christian should be an evangelizer. Pope Paul VI wrote: “The Church exists to evangelize.” And who is the “Church” if not us? (Evangelization in the Modern World: 14, 21. 41.)

 

Catholics are less aware of this than Protestants. And much less aware of the need and value of hospitality than Protestants are. If strangers come into a Catholic church on Sunday, it is almost certain we will ignore them just as we ignore one another. We just don’t see ourselves as “welcomers” unless we signed up for this job as a specific parish ministry. As a result, our parishes are not “welcoming churches.” What does this say about us?

 

It may say we are “last century” Catholics who still think of the Mass as something we “go to” as individuals to “fulfill our obligation” or to seek some kind of spiritual benefit for ourselves independently of others. We don’t understand Mass as a communal prayer, a communal celebration, a communal experience of “being Church” in the communal expression of shared faith and love. It may not enter our minds to think of Mass as a party. If it did, we would try to get to know others. Introduce ourselves to strangers. Make anyone who looks lost feel welcome.

 

The reason for this is not just practical: to recruit new members or retain old ones. It is theological, a matter of how we understand and express our faith.

 

In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”

 

Was he just looking at our failure to persevere in prayer as the persistent widow did with the judge? Or is he asking whether he will find people who keep praying precisely because they believe in his love, because they know and believe they are “his chosen”?

 

This is where hospitality comes in. The way we treat each other reveals the way we see each other. And ourselves. Are we chosen to “be Christ” to others? To show his love? To be one in love? (See hospitality in 1Timothy 3:2; 5:10; Titus 1:8; 1Peter 4:9; Hebrews 13:2; Romans 12:13.)


Initiative:  Recognize Christ: in yourself and in others. Show that you do.



Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry



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