Hospitality and Listening

Homily
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
18 July 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

St. Benedict challenged his monks to greet all guests as Christ. He admonished as well, however, that after three days, guests are like fish. They begin to stink. The excitement that Abraham shows in welcoming the three men who happen by his camp reminds us, if we have fallen down in this area, of the importance of being hospitable. As Christians, we need not be the most popular of socialites, but our homes ought to be places of welcome, both for our friends and for strangers. We should regularly be inviting people to our homes, and truly living in our homes, despite the constant temptations to the extremes of always going out or vegging out. We all know how easy it is to ignore our neighbors, and to get out of the habit of inviting both friends and neighbors and strangers to our homes. We do this to our own detriment, for Abraham shows in today's reading, and St. Benedict rightly teaches his monks, and Christ also says to his disciples, that whenever we welcome someone, especially the stranger, there is the chance of welcoming God Himself. Today's readings challenge us if we are falling out of the habit of making our homes a place of welcome, to recommit ourselves to the ministry of hospitality. We must trust that whenever we get together, Christ indeed is in our midst, and He brings with Him a blessing and His Holy Spirit which uses such opportunities to draw people together in love.
Our own Catholic tradition is rooted most strongly in this ministry of hospitality. More than anything else we do as Catholics, including bingo and fish fries, we gather for the breaking of the bread, and in the very structure of our liturgy and worship is a sharing of who we are and what we have on a table, an altar, and the chance to receive in return the Lord's blessing and the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to draw us to God and to one another more intimately. In our Catholic tradition, it has always been and continues to be, one of the gravest of sins to miss Sunday Mass, despite many attempts to minimize the importance of this obligation that we have. The great sin is not so much that we have an obligation to give honor and glory to God, although we do, but is the development of a most poisonous attitude that we go to Mass for what we get more than for what we give. We should know by now, but still we need reminding, that we will receive something at Mass only if we first truly place our lives with Christ on the altar of sacrifice, as St. Paul instructs us to do again in today's reading about making up in our flesh what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. It is the most individualistic and selfish of attitudes to approach Mass as a customer, trying to put a relative value on everything, and thinking about what we might get before deciding if we might give. It is equally poisonous to think that our own presence and our own offering of ourselves and our resources in sacrifice is of minimal importance to our brothers and sisters in Christ around us. The devil loves it when we think that the Church will be fine without me. The better attitude is that of the owner, who attends Mass hoping that his faithfulness will help others to also be faithful. A Catholic who attends Mass not for himself, but that others might see and be strengthened by his faith, and vice versa, is a true Catholic. A true Catholic is one who understands that faith is Jesus Christ is more communal than individual. Faith in Christ is something that we must share, if we are to have the faith that Christ left us, and not one we have customized for ourselves. A true Catholic is one who is excited each week not only to encounter Christ in the scriptures and in the sacraments, but also in His fellow worshippers and brothers and sisters who are with him. We do not come to Mass only to see people and to meet people, but there is nothing wrong with being excited that this Mass I will attend today is an opportunity to see, and to be with, and to meet my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is good to be excited that my contribution today, and how welcoming I am, will do much to build up the family of God that will last forever.
Still, we would be missing the most essential message of today's Scriptures if we left Mass today only thinking about what we have failed to do, and promising to do better in the area of hospitality. Mary has chosen the better part in today's Gospel, even though Martha is externally doing more to arrange for a meaningful dinner with Jesus, because Mary knows that our listening closely to Jesus is the one necessary thing. Being a disciple of Jesus is not simply feeling guilty about what we have failed to do, and promising God as we leave Mass that we will find a way to do more. It is not about adding more to an already busy life. Being a disciple of Jesus means having the discipline of waiting to act until we hear a word from Him. It is doing only what He tells us to do, nothing more, but nothing less. Being a disciple is not about doing as much as we possibly can for God, hoping that His will for us is somewhere in the ballpark. It is listening more intently for His voice, knowing that if the ears of the heart are atrophied, in vain do we labor. Being a disciple is trusting that if we do only what Jesus is telling us to do, and sometimes this does mean doing more, but oftentimes, it means cutting back and doing less, that everything we do with Him, in Him and through Him will redound to the glory of God, to our good and the good of our neighbor, and will build up the family of God that will last forever. Amen.