Ordinary time, week 14, Mt10, 7-15
Hospitality was a key instruction to the disciples before being sent out. In fact, hospitality is key to all our encounters: treating others with respect and dignity, honour and decency, especially visitors to our homes.
Pope Francis: Every Christian should be grateful for the gift of baptism and the gratitude should draw them together to recognize that they are brothers and sisters and called to pursue holiness together. All Christians are called to witness to the good news. Hospitality to the stranger and to those in need is a particularly strong form of witness. As baptized Christians, we believe that Christ wishes to meet us precisely in those who are — whether literally or figuratively — shipwrecked in life. Those who show hospitality grow richer, not poorer. Whoever gives, receives in return. The gratitude Christians feel for the gift of baptism links and expands their hearts, and opens them to their neighbour, who is not an adversary but a beloved brother or sister.
From a song by Carrie Newcomer:
Room at the table for everyone
Let our hearts not be hardened to those living on the margins, there is room at the table for everyone. This is where it all begins; this is how we gather in, there is room at the table for everyone
Too long we have wandered, burdened and undone, but there is room at the table for everyone. Let us sing the new world in, this is how it all begins, there is room at the table for everyone
There is room for us all and no gift is too small. There is room at the table for everyone. There's enough if we share, come on pull up a chair. There is room at the table for everyone.
No matter who you are, no matter where you're from, there is room at the table for everyone. Here and now we can be the beloved community. There is room at the table for everyone.
Let our hearts not be hardened to those living on the margins,
there is room at the table for everyone.
by Fr Thomas O'BRIEN a.a