Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 28, 2020

2KGS 4:8-11  |  ROM 6:3-48-11, | MT10:37-42

Scripture

1. So she said to  her husband, “I know that Elisha is a holy man of God, Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, lamp, so  that when he comes to us, he can stay there.”
2. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me….Whoever receives you, receives me and receives the one who sent me.”

We Know Hospitality When We Experience It and It is Beautiful!

Jesus Shares as the Disciples Return from Taking His Message to the Community

• I, Jesus must have the first place in your heart. Not even your father or mother can have that place.
• You must live an unselfish life for this is what it means to take up your cross.
• Whoever receives you, receives me. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he or she is a disciple-will not go unnoticed by me.

Do You Hear Jesus’ Message of Hospitality for Us?

• Do we need to have a sense of hospitality as we carry out his mission in our time?
• Is your heart and my heart a dwelling place of hospitality?
• Is there an openness there to every person?
• Is there a generosity and warmth there towards every person?

Meditation on Hospitality-Author Unknown

Hospitality is the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend.  Hospitality is to offer space where change can take place.  I would add here that there is no place for judgment of the other in a hospitable heart.  Hospitality is to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.  Are there too many dividing lines in our church or in our society?

Hospitality is to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and contentment.  Hospitality is to create a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free: free to sing their own songs, speak their languages, dance their own dances, free also to follow their own vocations.

Our Roles as Disciples – A Message from Pope Francis

“Jesus does not think of the close minded who are scandalized by a work of healing, scandalized before any kind of openness, by any action outside their mental and spiritual boxes, by any caress or sign of tenderness which does not fit into their unusual thinking…Jesus wanted to reinstate the outcast, to save those outside the camp.” (Pope Francis February 15, 2015)

St. Mary Parish Family Wants to Be Known as People of Hospitality

• We reach out our hearts and hands with a generous and tender welcome to all
• No one is excluded from joining us in giving  praise and that’s to the Lord

Like Pope Francis Says:

“Our love cannot be neutral, antiseptic, indifferent, lukewarm, or impartial! Love is infectious, it excites, it risks, and it engages!  Love is creative in finding the right words to speak to those considered incurable and hence untouchable…How many healing scan we perform if only we learn this language of [hospitable] contact!

Questions for Reflection

• What impacted you from today’s Readings and/or homily?
• Is your heart a dwelling place of hospitality?
• Do you have openness to every person?
• Do you have a generosity and warmth toward every person?

Live Connected

• Consider a time when you personally encountered extreme hospitality.  What would you like to replicate in your own life. Pick one or two things and act upon them.
• Pray for a hospitable heart and the eyes of Jesus for seeing those in most need of hospitality in your daily life.