My family has been hosting often. We’ve been looking for pockets of time in our week to invite people over, for a cup of coffee, for a meal, for a glass of wine after dinner, to watch a movie, to sit and read, to watch the birds in our yard, to simply be together.
After over a year of not being welcome in each other’s homes, and when currently there are many places that limit who is welcome, this act of hospitality seems nothing short of revolutionary.
Being welcome in someone’s home does wonders. It melts divisions, heals hearts, and reminds us of the imago Dei, the image of God, his fingerprint marked right in the center of who we are.
In a world where we are constantly being taught to look at each other as the other, there is power in saying “You are welcome here — just as you are.”
This is what Jesus did. He welcomed sinners like me to be with him.
The Pharisees even said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with all those sinners?” Jesus heard them and said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, it’s the sick who do” (Mark 2:17). Jesus came to call sinners to him, not those who think they’ve got it all together.
And I am a sinner. I have seen the darkness in my own heart this past year. I blamed others for the situations I found myself in. I got angry. I didn’t like them. I hated them. I tried to control them. I dehumanized them. I desperately need Jesus to heal me.
My family is learning to create space for conversation. Conversation that is expansive, that doesn’t just play the same tape over and over again but invites us to look beyond, to biblical solutions, to see what God is doing beyond what we see. But sometimes, we just sit and listen. This is a lesson for us in learning to be charitable, open to ideas and pain that is different than our own.
Father Henri Nouwen wrote that hospitality creates space “where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.”
Sometimes change takes place in the heart of the host, not just the guests.
In a world where Satan is actively working to divide us, staying in community, building community, showing hospitality is a revolutionary act of defiance.
Henri Nouwen understood this too. He wrote, “Keep reminding yourself that your feelings of being unwelcome do not come from God and do not tell the truth. The Prince of Darkness wants you to believe that your life is a mistake and that there is no home for you. … You have to keep unmasking the lie and think, speak, and act according to the truth that you are very, very welcome.”
As the Letter to the Hebrews says, “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels” (13:1-2).
Northwest Catholic – December 2021/January 2022