We have two famous hospitality stories from the Bible today. They are joined together to form a narrative though there are about one thousand eight hundred years between Jesus and Abraham. Abraham being a nomadic tribesman ends up at a certain place near present day Jerusalem at a location close to the desert called Mamre. At Mamre, there is a terebinth, which is a huge oak tree, and there he sets up his tent. Sitting outside his tent, he sees three travelers. He gets up and runs to them and he falls on his knees before them, which is an Asian sign of great reverence in the old days, and he says to them, “Would you do me the favor of staying here with me and I will give you water to wash your feet.”
And then, when they came in, and they decided that they would stay with him under the oak tree. He ran to his wife Sarah and told her to begin to make some very quick cakes on the stove and he would go and find something for them. He brings back a fatted calf and hands it to the servant to prepare it. And they prepare a huge banquet. And as the banquet goes on, it’s Abraham who waits on them, not his servants. And you wonder why all this fuss and attention!
Suppose you ever go to the Middle East today and you find yourself out in the desert area among the Bedouins. In that case, they will treat you, if they find you walking by their house, with almost the same respect, because they know that survival in the old days, and even today, in many parts of that desert area, depends on the hospitality of the people. This story has a happy ending beyond one’s imagination. Both Abraham and Sarah are elderly people and Sarah is beyond childbearing age. They are promised a son by the visitors. Sarah laughs at the mention of becoming a mother in her old age. So, the visitors tell Abraham to name his son, Isaac which means ‘laughter’. Imagine, later on when the child would be born, Sarah would be asked a zillion times, “How is LAUGHTER (Isaac)?” The theme of “dining with angels” has been inspirational to artists, musicians and playwrights and everyone else who believe nothing is impossible with God. You will find Andrei Rublev’s icon that has become the quintessential icon of the Holy Trinity, depicting the three mysterious strangers who visited Abraham, in most of the Eastern Churches.
The New Testament hospitality story has Martha inviting Jesus to a dinner. There is some sibling rivalry pictured in this narrative as Martha is sweating in the kitchen, while Mary, her sister, is sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him talk. And Martha gets a little bit upset and so she says to Jesus, “Lord, can’t you see my sister here, can’t you tell her to help me. I’m doing all this preparing all alone.” And instead of Jesus turning to Mary and saying, “Get up and help her,” he says, “Martha, Martha.” These are very intimate words. You can see him almost smiling: “Martha, Martha, you are so busy about so many things and worried about so many things. “But,” he said, “there’s only one thing necessary and Mary has it and it will not be taken away from her.”
Kind of strange words, aren’t they? They are meant to be strange. They are meant to make you think. When you invite someone to your house, you become a host who is supposed to take care of the guest and give the guest whatever he or she needs. The words, hospital, and hospice speak to us of being caregivers. The care that Jesus needed at that time was a pair of listening ears.
So how do we sit at the feet of Jesus every day so that we will experience some little bit of the next life here and now and death will be the continuation and expansion of what we already have here. The first thing is obviously to leave ‘Martha’s kitchen’, whatever is keeping us too busy, to spend some time every day with Jesus. Turn off the TV, put away the phone, pray together as a family or if you can’t, can you go to your room or to the church. If you want to listen to Jesus, you must create space in your day for Jesus.
A few short, hurried prayers in the morning and at night, and grace before meals, are not really centering our life around Jesus. Jesus is asking that we center our day around him, not just squeeze him into our day after we are done with our work. Of course, you can say prayers, but you can also pray with your heart, sharing your life with the Lord and above all, allowing the Lord to speak with you.
Have you read the entire four Gospels? You could imagine yourself sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to Him and conversing with Him just like Mary in the Gospel today by listening to his words from the Gospels. Praying to Our Lady is also very helpful; she is your mother. Even if your prayer is distracted, the important thing is to give the time to Jesus; he will understand and appreciate your love for Him and the time you give Him. He said to the apostles in the garden, “Stay here and keep watch with Me.” He would also like us to keep watch with Him and sit at his feet listening to Him.
I truly appreciate the effort made by the Knights of Columbus in bringing Rev. Fr. Guiseppe Siniscalchi for the “Running Man” event together with the Eucharistic Exhibition to our Parish last weekend. As we are in the year of growing closer to the Lord in the Eucharist, I would like to invite every family to consider ways of growing their devotion to the precious gift of Jesus’ Body and Blood.