Today’s scripture speaks about hospitality.

In our Old Testament reading (Genesis 18:1-10) we hear about Abraham welcoming God into his home. In today’s gospel passage (Luke 10:38-42) we hear about hospitality extended to Jesus by Martha and Mary in the home of Lazarus.

Our calling is the same as that of Abraham, Martha, and Mary. We are called to extend “hospitality” to God.

Divine wisdom teaches us that each one of us is a “temple” in which God can reside, that we are “homes” where God can live.  This is the essence of our being.  And so it is proper that we open ourselves to God and extend to him the same hospitality that we hear about in scripture today.

It is indeed proper that we “greet” God on a daily basis, that we open our “doors” to him, and bow to him as we welcome him into our “homes”.  We are called to open our hearts and minds to God, to “get comfortable” with God, to listen to God speak to us, to discern his message with our minds, to allow his love to flood our hearts.

At the mass I attended today, the presiding priest talked along these lines in his homily.  But it was the last line of that homily that caught me off guard – “as good hosts we take our cue from our guest”.

And this is profoundly true.  For we always remind ourselves that it is God – our “guest” – who acts first.  We always remind ourselves that our ability and willingness to extend hospitality to God is due to God reaching out to us and loving us first.  We always remember that it is our gracious and loving God who plants the seed of desire in us.  But it is also true that we are called to respond to God in a most hospitable and loving way.

So we take our “cue” from our “guest”. We take our cue from God and the seeds that God has planted in us.  We open ourselves to God so that with him we might work to cultivate those seeds.  And we take our cue from God’s most profound revelation – Jesus Christ.  We invite Jesus into our lives, we heed his words, we observe his actions, and we model our lives on his life.

And as we more and more open ourselves to Jesus, as we more and more make hospitality for Jesus our daily focus, as we more and more open the door and welcome Jesus into our “homes”, we allow ourselves to be transformed, and become more and more able to extend the same hospitality to others.

In today’s scripture Saint Paul talks about the importance of us allowing Christ to live in us (Colossians 1:24-28).  And how important this truly is, for it is only with Christ dwelling in us that we can fully extend hospitality to our neighbors, that we can open ourselves to loving relationships, that we can listen to the concerns of others, that we can reach out to others in need.

So we go forward with a spirit of openness and hospitality for both God and neighbor.  We go forward with the hope of making our world a better place, and allowing God’s kingdom of peace and justice to break into this world.