02 July 2023 – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends

Our readings today reminds us on the theme of ‘Hospitality‘. How God welcomes us into His heart.

And I would like to ask you how many have experienced a great sense of hospitality in your life? A show of hands anyone? A great sense of hospitality Looks like not many of you. Well, that shows we need to grow in hospitality.

Well, as you look at today’s First Reading, the First Reading taken from the book of Kings, gives us the image of how Elisha on his way to Shunem, we see a woman who was with rank, who lived there pressed him to stay and eat there. And here we see, dear friends, the invitation that was given to Elisha when he was doing God’s work. The woman saw something in Elisha and her heart was open to what he was doing because she knew that he was doing God’s work. And that is why she opened her heart, opened her house so that he can find comfort and he can rest there.

And as we look at this whole situations around us, we come to realise of the deep sense of hospitality that we need to embrace with one another. Because God, dear friends, has opened His heart to us so that we are able to enter into His heart and to allow that heart of God to transform us so that we can be hospitable towards one another.

And very often this hospitality that we speak about, or this place that Elisha goes again and again during his mission, was a place of comfort, was a place where he found refuge, he found solace and also was able to rest. In our journey of life, dear friends, there are many many situations that we become tired, we become disarrayed, we become disillusioned. And in those times, we need to find a place that comforts us, nourishes us, inspires us so that we can go and continue the mission that God allows us to. Because that mission itself that God has given us is a privilege that has been given to us.

And our family need to be a place of hospitality. Our community needs to be a place of hospitality. Our church needs to be a place of hospitality. But we need to embrace that when we allow ourselves to grow in this sense of hospitality, we must first open our hearts to welcome others in. And for that, dear friends, we need three things:

The first thing that we need to do is to have that openness of heart and mind to embrace each other as equal among us, that each and every one of us are blessed by God, each and every one of us are gifted by God with the different charisms and giftedness. And doing so, when we open our hearts to them they too are also God’s presence in our lives. And when we are able to recognise the presence of God in each other, then we are open with one another with respect, with dignity and in love.

And I am sure, let us ask ourselves how open are we in embracing the people around us. How open are we to people who have difference of opinion about us? And the first thing we need to do in hospitality is to grow in that openness of heart.

And the second thing, dear friends, that we need to grow in is this aspect of humility. We need to humble ourselves and acknowledge that we are people who do not know everything before us. We need to understand that God is in charge, God knows everything that has happened. In humility we need to submit ourselves in obedience to His will so that we are able to put God first, put God’s mission first before anything that we do.

If God has placed that desire in our hearts to be on mission, God has also placed that desires in other people’s hearts to be on mission as well. And that is why we need to embrace one another with humility. And with humility comes also this sense of acceptance. Because when we accept one another in humility, knowing that everyone is equal, everyone is respected because God is present in them, then we can have this openness with humility to embrace one another.

And the third thing, dear friends, that we need to acknowledge is that sincerity of heart. That sincerity of heart is important because if we are doing things not because of what God has placed that desires in our hearts, then perhaps we get derailed, we get disillusioned. But if we allow that sincerity of heart to guide our way, to seek the will of God in everything that we do, then God gradually, in time, allows that community, that family to bear fruit.

And as church as well, dear friends, we strive. We strive to grow in our openness, we strive to grow in humility, we strive to grow in sincerity of heart in the mission that God has entrusted to us, in the same way of how the woman was supportive of Elisha’s mission. As a priest as well, when I look into my ministry, in the journey that I have taken from where I was to where I am today, I see there has been so so many people who have been a part of that journey, who have been that place of comfort, that place of assurance, that place of inspiration for me.

And as I continue to lead on that journey, I have come to realise that it is not because of me that they are supportive. It is because the mission that God has given to us is far far more important than which leader I support, which priest I am close to, or which people I have acquaintances with, but more importantly, that God’s work is far far more important than individual personalities.

Let us ask the Lord, dear friends, today as we grow in this aspect of hospitality in our lives. And we pray as a community, we strive to grow deeper and deeper into hospitality. I would just like to perhaps screen the aspect of the parish that we have. These are the five areas perhaps that you can see how we too can grow in hospitality, that you and I can become participants in building this community of hospitality in CHS.

There is the sense of liturgy that we engage ourselves in which is important. With lectoring, with commentating, with readings that takes place. There are so many aspect of liturgy: altar servers, choir. So many areas of hospitality that we can come to be embracing.

The aspect of youth where youth come to build a community, to build friendship, a sense of belonging to be together with one another.

This aspect of formation too to grow deeper in conviction of who God is in our lives and how God has placed that desire of love in our hearts so that we can grow in.

The aspect of spirituality where we can grow in the aspect of spirituality where we are able to come to a deeper realisation of who God is and to do what we can to serve and to minister.

The aspect of service and outreach. We have so many areas of outreach that we are encouraged to participate because the church is not only what it sees as a worshiping community but as a community that serves our community at large, for those who are at the margins, for those who are really really in need, who need a shoulder to cry on. In the same way of how Elisha was able to go to the peripheries but be encouraged with that sense of comfort and assurance and inspiration at the house of the woman.

And lastly, the aspect of media. There are so many areas that we can be engaged, we can communicate, we can learn to be engaged.

And also, dear friends, among all of these, there is also this aspect of BECs and the Zones where we can come to be participants and grow in this aspect of hospitality.

So the opportunities before you, dear friends, are many. Are we willing to take that step forward? To bring that comfort and love towards people who are in need? In the same way that we are being comforted by this hospitality of God where God opens His heart to be embraced into His heart, are we willing to do the same for others as well?

Let us pray that we may grow in our openness towards one another, that we may grow in humility and ultimately grow with sincerity of heart that we are able to resonate with that hospitality of God in becoming a welcoming and hospitable community as one church.

Let us pray that God may touch our hearts and make us grow in hospitality.

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