Mass of Thanksgiving on the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
For many years, I worked in the hospitality industry. I cannot count the number of meals I have served over these years. In hospitality, the focus is not on you, but on those you serve. Hospitality can therefore become a way to give thanks and praise to God. The reading from Jeremiah today talks about hospitality: giving and receiving.
There was a Holy man, who traveled and would stop and dine at a place where a woman opened her home to the prophet Elisha. She gives him a room to sleep, sometimes overnight, which may be similar to today’s bed and breakfast. Elisha asks, "Can something be done for her?" She receives a new life and the promise of a son.
Hospitality is essential for St. Benedict. In Chapter 53 of The Rule, he writes: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” This line teaches that we show proper honor to our neighbors.
In today’s Gospel, Matthew writes about giving up and receiving: “Whoever loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” The early Church would have understood this analogy, but this may sound counter-cultural to our ears. With a world in so much chaos and terror, we need less of our popular culture, which is feeding our minds and souls and influences our society. It’s the culture of fast fixes, materialism, success and money. It’s the love of things over God, and our dignity is being lowered by them. God must be the center of our life.
God created us all in his image and likeness and gave us dominion over all the earth. The world was not created for chaos and terror. Our God is One of love, mercy, and hope – a God who so loved the world he sent his only son, Jesus, to take fear away from the world’s darkness.
So I challenge everyone here. Develop a response in your world with hope, mercy and love. Bring the light of Christ into this darkness. We all have our own cross to carry. Jesus Christ took up his cross, is always giving and has given the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. We receive the gifts he has given us, and so it becomes our duty to offer those gifts to others.
So now, we gather for the Eucharist, and we find ourselves once more in that upper room with the first disciples at The Last Supper, which is present again for us.
Fr. Joseph Voltaggio O.S.B.