Hospitality, the work of the Church

I have had much to chew on over the past week or so as I've nibbled my through the first half of Wolfgang Vondey's People of Bread: rediscovering ecclesiology.  Drawing upon Jewish and Christian Scriptures, he sets forth a thought-model of Church rooted in the biblical images of God's relationship with God's people as mediated through bread.  Most crusty in the first three chapters, has been the section dealing with hospitality (Vondey 70-105).  The moral character of God's People, Israel in the case of Genesis and Exodus, hinges on their faithfulness in extending hospitality to strangers.  Hospitality sets Abraham and Lot apart, particularly from Lot's neighbors in Sodom.  The Sodomites are described as satisfied and self-sufficient (full of bread), yet they act with extreme inhospitable hostility to strangers (Gen 19:5).  For his part, Abraham minimizes the feast he offers, central to which are bread-cakes made by Sarah from over 90 cups of flour, yet he recognizes that by welcoming the stranger he may well be entertaining angels (Gen 18).  Citing Jeffery Geohagan, he underlines the parallels between this Gen 18-19 with the Passover narrative in Exodus.  The takeaway being that "the imitation and emulation of God's actions stands at the root of the biblical concept of hospitality" (Vondey 96).

My association with the Catholic Worker movement has taught me to see hospitality as a form of resistance.  Welcoming the stranger can be a bit counter-cultural.  Particularly in the case of someone who is homeless, undocumented, transgendered, or Republican, depending on your circles, to welcome her extravagantly to a family gathering might ruffle some feathers.  It is even better to see hospitality as Vondey describes it, inspired by the "vision to live in a world without strangers" (99).  In a world governed by laws and mores that discourage social mixing, hospitality frees both host and guest as they are elevated through shared bread to companionship with each other and with God (103). 

In my ministry, I am often feel the pressure of not having enough resources to go around or time to spend getting to know those with whom I work on a deeper level.  If I can give them a fraction of what they need, they often go away grateful, but unfilled.  What would it look like to meet not only John Chrysostom's minimal standard of hospitality (civility, attention, and restraint), but to go beyond this and to remove the shame of being in need of hospitality through attentive service and a demonstration of word and deed that to receive a guest is to receive (not bestow) a favor (*Vondey 86,100)? What attitude toward my own time must I adopt?  How can I dispose of the goods that have been entrusted to me for others' benefit in an equitable, yet generous, way?  How much energy ought I devote to increasing the resources available in general as opposed to rationing what I already I know I have? 

*John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 41.26 (in French) and Homily 14


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