SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2025)

Readings:

Genesis 18:1-10a

Psalms 15:2-5

Colossians 1:24-28

Luke 10:38-42

St. Benedict thought hospitality to be so important that some monks had the word tattooed on their open hands.  Hospitality is one of three primary virtues that Benedict included in his Rule for monks.  Hospitality is said to be the universal language of charity, and Benedict told his monks that guests should never be lacking.  The wayfarers who so often would make their way to a monastery seeking food and lodging, “were to be welcomed as Christ” said St. Benedict.  Strangers were to be treated with the utmost care – not deported!

Our readings for this sixteenth Sunday are very much focused on hospitality.  The Yahwist tradition (one of three different strains) in the Book of Genesis portrays God in a very anthropomorphic (human) way, and so we find God appearing to Abraham in his tent, as though he was a neighbor stopping over for a chat.  Abraham seems easily distracted, even though they are best buds, and even though God entered into a covenant with Abraham (“your descendants shall be like the stars in the heavens,” although his wife had yet to bear any children), Abraham is distracted by three men “standing nearby.”  Abraham goes out to meet them and shows them great deference (“bowing”), prevailing upon them not to “go on past Abraham,” but to stay and wash their feet, and have a “little food.”  Abraham will wait on them under the shade of the terebinth tree.

This Old Testament story could have been a Lucy skit, for the amount of flour he tells his wife Sarah to procure is equivalent to about fifty pounds!  Along with an abundance of bread, Abraham will also pick out a steer, an animal that generally weighs over 1,100 pounds.  Needless to say, it’s more than you get at Outback, and it was meant to show Abraham’s respect for the strangers, as well as highlight his generosity, importance and wealth.  In any event, Abraham’s generosity and kindness is more than rewarded when one of the men tells him he will be back in a year, and by that time “Sarah will have a son.”  The covenant is finally being fulfilled.

The Gospel from Luke recounts a time when Jesus accepts the invitation of a good friend, Martha, to come to dinner.  It is unlikely that Jesus was alone, and Martha’s sister Mary (their brother Lazarus is not mentioned by Luke) sits at the feet of the Master, listening to Him teach.  Even though she wasn’t exactly given fifty pounds of flour to make rolls with, she tired quickly of her sister’s ignoring all the details of the meal, and she boldly approaches Jesus, whining that she is left all alone in the kitchen while her lazy sister sits there: “Tell her to help me” (she doesn’t even speak directly to her sister).  Martha gets a comeuppance of sorts when Jesus says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Hospitality is never grudgingly given, and it certainly should never lead to upset.  Perhaps Jesus brought too many apostles, perhaps Mary didn’t want to be in the kitchen, where she would never reap the blessings and benefits of what Jesus has to teach.  Martha is not to be condemned for rightly feeling put out, but did she take on more than she could chew?  Did she know Jesus was coming?  Could she have prepared something in advance in order that she, too, could hear what the Master had to say?  Jesus said to Martha: “you are anxious and worried about many things.”Was her mind and heart so crowded with anxiety and worry, that she didn’t have the time to be worried about what really matters – being with a truly special guest.  In Luke’s version of this story Martha has to feel chastened, and the rest of the meal had to have been uncomfortable.

As we stated last weekend, Jesus is meant to be the center of our lives.  It is Him that we proclaim in word and deed, and to adoringly sit at the feet of the Master should be the goal of all those who call themselves Christian.  As Colossians proclaims: “It is Christ whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”  Whether we are in the kitchen, on the bus, at the bank, at the grocery store, we are meant to profess Jesus as Lord, for He is the most special of guests who resides in our hearts.