The Hospitality of God

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

What seems to be the most common comparison made between Catholic parishes and Protestant churches is that the former lack the warmth and hospitality which you can readily experience in the latter. This too has often been cited as the main reason why these Protestant churches appear to be more attractive than their Catholic counterparts. So, is offering better hospitality the solution to getting our Catholics to stay put and to attract more new members?

Hospitality in the ancient world was much more than politeness or friendliness. In an age when inns were few and far between, travelers had to rely upon the hospitality of strangers to aid them in their journeys. Hospitality was also a way to survive in a culture where political boundaries were in constant flux.

Before dismissing this as pure superficiality, let us consider what the readings have to say about hospitality? It is clear that hospitality is more than just a five-star personal butler service by your team of wardens, or getting a Louis Vuitton door gift bag when you are identified as a first timer, or you are feted with a standing ovation by the whole congregation or a cheerful welcoming ditty led by the choir. Hospitality means more than welcoming people and making them feel at home. It means more than being friendly and generous, especially toward strangers. The theme of hospitality in the readings is more nuanced.

In the first reading, we have the story of how a pagan, a Shunammite woman, shows remarkable hospitality to the prophet Elisha and is rewarded with “a prophet’s reward,” the gift of life to one who was barren, the epitome of God’s graciousness. Though not part of the biblical account, a Jewish midrash narrates how Elisha performs a second miracle which resurrects this woman’s son at her behest when he died prematurely due to an accident. In another midrashic account, the son of the Shunammite woman comes back to life twice, once when he dies in the field and Elisha revives him, as is related above; and a second time, after the death of Elisha when his corpse comes into contact with the prophet’s bones. So, the story is not just an illustration of the promise of our Lord in the gospel, that “anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward” but also a prefiguration of the greater “reward” which the Lord promises to all who welcome Him and His disciples, which is the gift of the resurrection.

This is what St Paul wishes to convey to the Romans in the second reading: “When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.” By our baptism into Christ’s death, His death becomes ours. Christ’s story becomes our story. Christ’s strength becomes our strength. Christ’s body becomes our body. Christ’s risen life becomes our risen life. This is the greatest gift of hospitality - salvation. And for this reason, those who welcome us also welcomes the One who sent us because they will be welcoming Christ. We, by virtue of our baptism, are that other Christ!

And finally, we come to the gospel. Christ is the ultimate paradigmatic model of a virtuous life. Christ is not just one priority among many. He is the priority which supersedes all other priorities - in fact, He is the absolute priority over the closest family ties, over life and finally over possession of one’s own self. But this priority comes with a unique privilege and reward - the servant or envoy is placed on par with the principal. How the servant or delegate is treated is equivalent to how the principal is treated. There are not two different standards, one for the subordinate and one for the superior, but one single standard for both. This is at the heart of the mystery of Incarnation - that God became man - and this too is the very essence of the mystery of redemption - Christ took our place on the cross, and by His resurrection, we who die in Him will also rise with Him. The glory which He reaped on the cross and by His death is for us to enjoy too.

So, one can see that hospitality goes even deeper than good manners and kindness shown to a stranger or a visitor. It is, in effect, what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ for the salvation of His bride. In fact, the whole of the bible and salvation history can be understood in terms of divine hospitality. From the moment God placed Adam in a garden which the latter had not planted, to how He showed hospitality and offered protection to Abraham and his family, to how God gave the Israelites the Promised Land to call home, to finally preparing the heavenly city of God that welcomes and provides eternal sanctuary to the righteous, we see scriptures revealing to us the primordial hospitality of God, in contrast to the inhospitality brought about by man’s sin.

We see a similar pattern in the life of Christ. The inhospitality that Jesus encounters from the time of His birth, when there was no room for Him in the inn (Lk 2:7), and when Herod tried to do away with Him (Mt 2:13), He continues to encounter throughout His entire lifetime. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him (Jn 1:11). Our Lord counters the inhospitality of the human heart with the hospitality of His heavenly Father. In the light of the crucified and risen Christ, the community of Christian faith proclaims that God, the Host of the world, has given us His Son and Spirit, to transform an inhospitable humankind into His own hospitable image and likeness.

So, in a world of deep and divisive hostility like ours today, we truly believe a recapturing of the understanding and practice of biblical hospitality to be a key component of renewal of our parishes. Hospitality is not optional to the Christian life. Our souls are measured by, among other things, how faithfully we provide hospitality to others. According to Christ, it is one of the conditions for salvation: “I was a stranger and you made me welcome” (Mt. 25:35). We might tend to think of hospitality as the sole realm of the minister of hospitality or front desk parish secretary. But the warmest greeting by a warden can be immediately undone by a parishioner’s harsh word or dirty look. The only way parishes become beacons of hospitality is for all of us to make hospitality our responsibility. When everyone in a parish is welcoming, serving, blessing and being blessed, offering others the greatest gift which is the gift of salvation, then we can be sure that when we meet Jesus, He will show us the greatest hospitality by saying, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:34).

Do not be afraid!

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Anxiety is a part of being human. Fear, worry, and anxiety show up together and feed into each other in the various situations where danger, perceived or real, lurks. It can be frustrating, and sometimes you just have to deal with it on your own terms. But sometimes, anxiety can be so overwhelming to the point of crippling us, the bleakness and uncertainty of the future may paralyse us to the point that we are unable to make any decision, process any thought or take any action. Despite our best efforts to suppress the feeling and get a hold of ourselves, we don’t ever seem to completely overcome its harsh grip.

In the first reading, we have the prophet Jeremiah bewailing his pitiful situation where he is being persecuted and hemmed in from all sides by his detractors, some of whom had been his friends. He complains that the Lord had ‘seduced’ him so that he cannot stop prophesying disaster. His suffering, pain and anxiety are real - there is no doubt about this. He understands that if he stops proclaiming the truth, the persecution will stop, his friends will return, the situation will normalise. But then instead of giving up and giving in, Jeremiah proclaims his faith: “But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero …Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.”

Rather than allow his emotional and physical torment to move him to abandon his mission, Jeremiah doubles down on his resolve to remain faithful, to persist in trusting God, despite all the challenges that are thrown at him. His story is a lesson for us too. When our hearts align with God’s values, we will view the dangers around us differently. Death, discomfort, and dire circumstances don’t have the same sting when we have God’s eternal perspective. When God’s values and our values align, we will understand what is most important and live out the purpose we were created for.

Throughout the gospels and especially in today’s gospel passage, our Lord repeatedly tells us, “do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid of speaking the Truth; do not be afraid of intimidation from those who wish to silence you: do not be afraid of opposition, persecution and even martyrdom at the hands of your enemies; do not be afraid because we are of great worth in the eyes of God. At the end of the day, do not be afraid of proclaiming the gospel.

There is no denying that it is tempting to stop preaching the gospel or to soften the message in order to make things easier and protect ourselves from suffering and opposition. It may seem for now that whatever is the Truth may be passed off by society as a lie, but we are assured by the Lord that those who bravely proclaim and defend the Truth will experience vindication one day. Even if the Truth seems obfuscated in our lifetime, one day, “everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.”

Therefore, despite all the opposition and vilification which we will receive, Christians must continue to speak “in the daylight” and proclaim the gospel “from the housetops.” Such bold proclamations may lead to martyrdom, there is no denying that. But our Lord reminds us that the goal of a Christian witness is not just survival and personal safety but salvation. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Therefore, we should fear God more than our persecutors. Tell the truth and risk the wrath of the mob. But tell a lie and risk the wrath of God. We should prefer the former to the latter. The martyrs whom we have encountered will testify to this.

At the end of the day, the real motivation for our decisions, our actions and our speech should not be the fear of public reaction but rather, the judgment from God. Our Lord tells us that He will acknowledge us before His Heavenly Father, if we stand resolutely to acknowledge Him before His enemies. His enemies may harm our bodies, but God will save our souls. We may be “cancelled” by the angry mob, but we will be affirmed by our loving God. But be warned, less we take God’s patience and mercy for granted. God will not hesitate to “cancel” us, if we choose to placate the mob for our political survival, rather than stand for what is true and good and morally right, and be saved from eternal damnation.

So, let us heed our Lord’s exhortation once again: “do not be afraid.” If you feel that heeding this is humanly impossible, our greatest example to follow would be the one who walked this path most perfectly, Our Blessed Mother. This is why the meditations of the Most Holy Rosary, are not just meditations concerning our Blessed Mother, but they concern her Son. There is no one who entered our Lord’s Passion more completely, experienced His wounds more deeply, agonised more bitterly or suffered more grievously with Him than His Mother. Yet, she refused to allow whatever pain, anxiety and anguish cripple her from keeping vigil by the cross and remaining steadfast at the death of her Son, despite the fact that she is now left a childless widow in a society which cares little for her kind.

After Jesus, there is no one on earth who has or will ever sacrifice more for the salvation of mankind, than the one who gave up her Son and her God to the most brutal violence and death on our behalf. If we follow Mary to the foot of the Cross and take her as our Mother and Teacher, we will come to learn most perfectly how to love sacrificially, how to unite with Jesus in His Passion, adore Him in His pains, and receive the infinite love and mercy that He offers us.

In 1381, King Richard II in Westminster Abbey dedicated England to Our Lady as he sought the protection of Our Lady in the face of great political turmoil. At this point, England received the title ‘Mary’s Dowry’; meaning that England was ‘set aside’ as a gift, a dowry, for Our Lady under her guidance and protection. After 3 centuries of destruction and religious persecution and suppression, the bishops of England had rededicated England once again to Mary in the year 2020, right in the middle of a raging pandemic. That ceremony may have attracted little attention from the media and the world, unlike the recent coronation of King Charles III, but for Catholics, it was a most significant act of devotion and faith by the Catholics who regard her as Queen. It takes great faith to believe that the splendour of the Catholic faith can ever be restored to a nation which has strayed so far from the goodness, truth and beauty which comes from God. It might take more than great faith; it might even take a miracle. It will certainly require the intercession of the saints, and the constant praying of the Rosary for the conversion of sinners and hearts.

As we draw to the end of our pilgrimage, let us look back with joy and thanksgiving at our whole journey. Certainly there were many moments of joy, mirth and camaraderie. Today, let us ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Lady of the Rosary, that we grow deeper in love and friendship, not just among ourselves, but with the one who showed us the true extent of love by His sacrifice on the cross.

Pray, Act and Be Sent

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

The evangelist paints this poignant picture of the Lord and how His shepherd’s heart is moved with pity when He sees the crowds “because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” Our Lord is describing the condition of man apart from God, he is like “sheep without a shepherd.” The Jewish people of that day did indeed have some kind of spiritual guides and shepherds, namely the scribes, priests, Levites, and Pharisees. Yet for the most part they were worthless.

Then our Lord uses another imagery, He moves from a pastoral to an agrarian metaphor: “the harvest is rich but the labourers are few.” Both imageries evoke two different but not unrelated pictures: a neglected flock of sheep, and a harvest going to waste for lack of reapers. Both imply, not only a pitiful plight of the people, but a blameworthy neglect of duty on the part of their religious guides.

So, what is the solution? What can we do in such a dark situation where the problem seems so much larger than any solution we can muster? It is common for many to feel hapless and powerless and merely resign themselves to the dire situation which is beyond their control. Rather than what most people would do, which is to just feel sorry about the other’s predicament, our Lord goes beyond mere sentiments and good intentions. He prays and He acts.

Prayer must always come first instead of being a last resort. We often buy into the lie that prayer is a backup plan when all our resources are exhausted and plans fail. But, prayer should always be the first thing we must do in any situation. Since the harvest belongs to the Lord of the Harvest, we are commanded to pray that He would send workers to reap His harvest. The English translation “send” does not do justice to the original Greek word. The Greek is much more forcible, it is that He would push them forward, compel them and thrust them out; it is the same word which is used for the expulsion of a devil from a man possessed. It takes great power to drive a devil out, it will need equal power from God to drive a Christian out from his comfort zone to do his mission.

Prayer is never a replacement for action. It does not push the buck to God so as to exonerate one from taking responsibility. Our Lord acts and answers the very prayer which He tells His disciples to do. He tells His disciples to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send more labourers and He as the Lord of the Harvest now sends them out.

The scene of our Lord calling the Twelve and sending them out with authority recalls the scene in the first reading, where God calls Moses to ascend Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God. But instead of Moses, we have here, someone greater than Moses. In fact this is the Word that leapt down from the heavens, this is the One whom Moses encountered in the clouds that covered the mountaintop, and from His hands, Moses received the Ten Commandments, the One who is the author of that Law. In the case of Moses, the rest of Israel had to remain at the foot of the mountain and only Moses was given safe passage. But now in this scene, our Lord summons the Twelve to come to Him, they will be the foundation of the new Israel, an Israel that will not be kept at a distance but a new Israel who will have God in their midst.

The new Israel is the Church, “a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.” The Greek word for Church is Ekklesia which comes from the Greek verb, ekkaleo, which means “to summon” or “to call out.” And so we see here our Lord summoning the Twelve and they come to Him. It is a reminder that to be a member of the Church is a vocation. God takes the initiative by calling us, we merely respond. The Church is not man-made. It is God-initiated. If it was man-made it would not be worth our time and effort.

The mission of the Twelve and that of the Church is two-fold. First, they are called to be with the Lord, to be His companions. That is essential. What they are to be and what they are to do, would ultimately be defined by their relationship with Christ. Without Christ, they are nothing. They were to be with their Lord not only in the mountain-top periods, but also during the worst of times in which He was abandoned, mocked, rejected and crucified. Ultimately, they were with Him after the resurrection as eyewitnesses of the Risen Lord who had defeated death. The testimony of these Apostolic witnesses was necessary to confirm that the Church which is built on Apostolic foundation is not just a human organisation but the mystical Body of Christ.

The second part of that mission is to preach the Good News, which includes the liberating power of the gospel to set mankind free from evil. The Church is essentially missionary. She exists to preach the gospel in both word and deed. When the Church ceases to preach the Word and substitutes it with some social justice advocacy and work, she ceases to be the Church. When this happens, she is no different from any other NGO. She will be doing good work, no doubt about it, but it would be the work of man for men, not the work of God - Opus Dei - for the salvation of souls.

Were these men called to lay the foundations of the Church exceptional by any standard? Hardly. Our Lord called men, not angels. They came from different backgrounds, with different personalities, and yet they were all chosen to serve the Lord in a unique and special way. For the most part, these men were average, ordinary men. In fact, their résumés would not have landed them lucrative or influential positions among society. Many of them proved to be failures and even one, was responsible for betraying our Lord and another denied Him at His hour of need. As someone once said, “the Lord doesn’t call the equipped or those with abilities; He equips the called, and seeks availability.”

And so, as we are often disappointed and sometimes even scandalised by the conduct of the members and leaders of the Church, we must remember that the Church, the beautiful Bride of Christ, His Mystical Body, is also a Church made up of sinful and imperfect members. But knowing that should not deter us from running into her arms and seek her loving care. For to turn our backs on the Church, would mean to turn our backs on Christ who called us to be His faithful companions to carry on the mission of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. And the Church continues to do this because she is not man-made, but divinely instituted!

So, when we witness bad shepherds who neglect their duty and abuse their flock, what should we do? Harbour resentment, trash the Church or turn our backs on the Bride of Christ? The answer can be found in listening to our Lord and imitating what He did - pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send more labourers; and then listen to His call, to His command to “go... and as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.”

What is it?

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 

“What is it?” 

With child-like simplicity and curiosity, that was the first verbal response in the form of a question which emanated from the lips of the Israelites when they saw this strange fluffy object on the ground, something which had miraculously materialised out of thin air and which they concluded was God’s gift to them. Manna! The Hebrews did not know what it was, and, with a word-play typical of the Bible, etymologised it as ‘man-hu’, Hebrew for ‘What is it?’ 

The Israelites first crisis in the desert was a lack of water; now comes the next crisis, a lack of food. God answers the Israelites’ call and begins the longest running, continuous miracle in the Old Testament—the daily manna from heaven. Each morning, manna rained down from heaven like the dewfall, and this continued to sustain the Israelites for 40 years during their long track through the desert before it finally stopped when they entered the Promised Land. 

But God was not just contented with providing water from a rock and bread from heaven to sustain the Israelites on their long pilgrimage. The wind, or “ruach,” also directed an abundance of quail over the camp of the Israelites. The Hebrew word ruach is the same word for “spirit.” Thus, the Spirit of God provides the Israelites with the bread of manna from heaven, and the flesh of the quail. God provides bread and flesh for the Israelites, as Christ provides the “bread” and flesh of His body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is our daily manna from heaven, where the bread is transubstantiated into the flesh of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, ruach. He is our daily manna from heaven that sustains us on our desert wanderings in this earthly sojourn, until we cross over into the Promised Land of heaven. Again, the miraculous in Exodus becomes the supernatural in the New Testament. God is not subtle with His symbology. The supernatural Sacrament of the Eucharist is our daily manna from heaven. 

To the Protestant objection to the Catholic preeminence of the Eucharist by proposing that the Word of God should take precedence, citing our Lord’s reply to Satan after the first temptation (“Man does not live on bread alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of God”), we have to remind our separated brethren as did Moses in the first reading that this text actually points to the manna which God provided in the desert. “Remember how the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart – whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Moses was speaking of the gift of manna as God had promised. 

And in response to the second temptation, our Lord responds, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Matt. 4:7). This time, He’s recalling Deuteronomy 6:16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” And what happened at Massah? It’s where God had Moses miraculously brought water forth from the rock (Exod. 17:1-7). 

So, our Lord’s first response to Satan recalls the manna in the desert, and His second response recalls the water from the rock. What’s the connexion between these two and the Holy Eucharist? These are the supernatural (or “spiritual”) food and drink that St Paul presents as foreshadowing the Eucharist (1 Cor. 10:1-4): “I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” So, our Lord’s answer to Satan is profoundly Eucharistic. 

This brings us back to the gospel. The context is the discourse which takes place after the miracle of the multiplication of bread and the feeding of the multitude. When the crowds ask for manna in John 6:30-31, they’re falling into the same error as the devil. They want the bread alone, without the theological implications. But our Lord reveals more in His reply: “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33). Our Lord in today’s gospel reveals His true identity: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” 

So, when we talk about living off “comes from the mouth of the Lord,” our minds go quickly to Scripture, and that’s not wrong. But the true Word is Jesus Himself. “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). This Son, Jesus Christ, is the definitive Word of God, the Word made flesh (John 1:1-5, 14), and our spiritual lives need to be rooted in Him. 

So as we gaze upon this white wafer and this gilded chalice, what do we see? We ask, “what is it?” As the Sequence declares: “Bread is made flesh by words from heaven: Into his blood the wine is turned.” 

What is it? 

“The living body is our food; Our drink the ever-precious blood; In each, one undivided Lord.” 

What is it? 

“Behold the bread of angels, sent for pilgrims in their banishment, The bread for God’s true children meant, That may not unto dogs be given.” 

What is it? 

The true manna sent from heaven; the medicine of immortality; the antidote to death. 

What is it? 

Jesus, the living bread from heaven, truly, really, substantially, body and blood, soul and divinity. 

What is it? Not what but who? 

My Lord and my God!