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Preoccupation
Versus Hospitality
June
26, 2005 Homily
Matthew
10:37-42
Fr.
George Smiga
An
old, Italian man was dying in his bed at home. He had lived
a long and full life, but he knew that it was coming to an
end. As he lay in bed breathing uneasily suddenly the room
was filled with a warm and wonderful smell of anisette. The
smell was so powerful and so pleasing that it lifted the old
man out of his deathbed. Summoning all of his energy, he make
his way down the steps to the first floor of his home. As
he stood at the door of the kitchen he saw a heavenly sight.
His wife of sixty years was baking. In the center of the kitchen,
on a table, spread out on wax paper were hundreds of anisette
cookies. These were his favorite cookies, and they were still
warm from the oven. With the little strength that was left,
the dying man staggered towards the table and reached out
his hand to take one of the cookies. Suddenly his hand was
hit by a spatula, and his wife said, “Don't touch! They are
for the funeral!”
I
love that story! I love it because it is such a clear example
of how we can become so preoccupied with our projects and
with our goals that we shut out the people we love—so preoccupied
that we ignore the very people we are trying to help.
It
is so easy to become preoccupied, preoccupied with work, with
responsibilities, with our schedules, with our goals, with
our troubles, with our fears. As we zero in on these particular
aspects of life, we often unintentionally reduce the beauty
and joy of life that is possible to us. We shrink down the
size of our life to fit the issues that are filling up our
minds.
How
can we loosen the hold of this preoccupation that would strangle
us? How can we let go of the things that seem to consume us
so, so that we can live in a deeper and richer way?
The
answer to this question might surprise you, because the antidote
to preoccupation is hospitality. When we open ourselves to
others, we shatter the narrow focus of our lives. We allow
our lives to expand, to deepen, and to grow. This is what
the woman of Shunem does as she invites the prophet Elisha
into her home. This is what Jesus commands in the Gospel as
he tells us to welcome the prophet to welcome the righteous
person. Clearly hospitality, welcoming the other, is a requirement
of a disciple.
Hospitality
has two dimensions: disruption and growth. When we are hospitable,
our lives are disrupted, disrupted to make room for new people,
new ideas, new opportunities. Hospitality forces our schedules
to change, our expectations to shift. Often, when we invite
the prophet into our lives, the prophet has something to say
that challenges us, that forces us to think in new ways. So,
hospitality is disruptive. But that very disruption leads
to growth. Because as we grapple with new people, with new
ideas, with new opportunities, we are forced to rearrange
the patterns and schedules of our lives. We are forced to
realize that there is more to life than the things that are
preoccupying us. Hospitality disrupts us, but it leads us
to growth.
Moreover,
we must not make the mistake of thinking that Jesus' command
to be hospitable is limited only to inviting people physically
into our homes. Hospitality is an attitude, an attitude of
openness to what is new, to what is different, to what could
expand and stretch us.
This
attitude of hospitality grows in small steps. Jesus says it
can be as small as offering a cup of cold water to a little
one. It can be as small as starting up a conversation with
someone we do not know in a supermarket, or of listening to
someone with whom we disagree, or of undertaking a simple
role of service that we have never done before. Each time
we open our selves to what is different, to what is new, to
the stranger in our midst, hospitality shapes us, makes us
more flexible, makes us more open to life.
So,
clearly the Gospel today calls us to practice hospitality,
to open ourselves to the new. This command of Jesus is not
a marginal one. It has profound consequences. Listen to Jesus'
very words. He says, “Those who welcome you welcome me, and
those who welcome me welcome the One who sent me.” Jesus'
claim for hospitality could not be clearer or higher. When
we welcome the stranger, when we welcome the different, when
we welcome the new, we welcome the very presence of God into
our lives.
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