Anyone Who Welcomes You, Welcomes Me

Hospitality:

People like to think of themselves as friendly and welcoming. But at least in the spontaneous, instinctive sense of hospitality, times have changed. Today’s would-be casual visitor should ring first, dodge the various TV soaps and sports, while being aware of the growing ‘early-to-bed’ regime.  From gated developments to security lighting to doorbells that beckon fetchingly through a locked porch door, the edge has gone off ‘Ireland of the welcomes’.

But turning to the neighbour is simply turning to the Gospel: ‘Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me’. We may think that unlike Elisha’s day (First Reading), Christianity is a non-prophet organisation – but we’re very wrong. Look closer and you will see Christ gazing back at you in every face and culture.

Ultimately hospitality is about attitude more than plenitude. The 19^th century writer Thoreau put it this way: ‘I sat at a table where rich food and wine …but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the hospitable board. They talked of the fame of the vintage; but I thought … purer wine, of a more glorious vintage, which they had not got, and could not buy.’

Christian hospitality is much more than cups of tea; it’s about buckets of tolerance and understanding that satisfy the deepest thirst.

Image Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash

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