I like hospitality. I like receptionists who help me feel welcome and thus set the tone for a fruitful visit whether it is to the dentist, doctor, mechanic, or other appointments. Welcoming receptionists eliminate much confusion and set the tone for fruitful visits.
Hospitality in Church
I also like hospitality at Church. In Hebrews 13: 1-3 it says, “Brothers and sisters: Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it, some have unknowingly entertained angels.”
Hospitality was important in the Old Testament because, in the desert, a person could die if they did not receive hospitality.
Jesus gave hospitality to friends and strangers and welcomed them into the kingdom. Jesus will continue to offer hospitality through us if we let him.
Pastors and preachers share hospitality through their preaching, presiding, tone of voice, and verbally welcoming parishioners, newcomers, and visitors. The hospitable congregation makes sure that the church is comfortable, clean, and has sacred space that invites graced worship.
Hospitable church members share hospitality when they pray for each other, offer rides to church, and visit parishioners, the aged, the disabled, or shut-ins.
They share hospitality by attending funerals, sending condolences, simply moving over in their pew, or giving their seat to a stranger and making him or her feel welcome.
Being Christ-like
They are hospitable, courteous, and Christ-like to others in the parking lot. They reach out to suffering persons, give to collections for the needy, and more.
In an article entitled “Hospitality at Church,” college students were asked to attend different churches. The 20-year-olds reported that the churches they liked best were hospitable.
A church has hospitality when collectively it never forgets that 24,000 people die every day from malnutrition and it tries to help when it can. A church has Christian hospitality when it remembers that the Biblical command to “Love your neighbor” appears only once in the Hebrew Bible while the command to love the stranger appears in the New Testament more than 30 times. The New Testament word for hospitality is philoxenia which means “the love of strangers.”
A parish that has hospitality remembers how Mother Teresa, when invited to receive the Nobel Prize in 1979, insisted that the ceremonial banquet be canceled and asked that the $6,000 cost for the banquet be donated to the Calcutta poor. The money saved on that banquet would help her feed hundreds for one year.
For years I was a help-out priest who appreciated the welcome of ushers, sacristans, and ministers of hospitality.
However, hospitality is not limited to them. All Church members are called to be hospitable. It is an act of love that breaks down walls and opens doors to friendship. It takes effort, sacrifice, and may inconvenience the giver.
Hospitality shouts to those who receive it: “You are welcome here. We are privileged to have you at our home, our table, or church.” Parishioners should offer hospitality to each other because sometimes today many parishioners are strangers to each other.
Christ-like hospitality is a foretaste of the welcome that we hope to receive in Heaven. In Matthew 25:34-35, Jesus says, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Fr. Donald Lange is a pastor emeritus in the Diocese of Madison.