HOMILY WEEK 12 06 – Year I
Faith, Hospitality and Service
(Gen 18:1-15; Lk 4:46-55; Mt 8:5-17)
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Do you remember a time when you were received with gracious hospitality, and how wonderful that felt?
Today’s liturgy encourages us to express our faith through hospitality and service.
The first reading is a delicate interplay of faith or lack of it, hospitality, selfless service and God at work through it all.
Abraham, of course, is our father in faith. His faith is obvious from the start of the passage, as he greets his three visitors with the respectful title, “My Lord.” He is reminiscent of the loving father in the story of the Prodigal Son, as he hastens to the tent to Sarah and ran to the herd to get a calf. He and Sarah prepare a veritable feast for these three strangers, who enjoy the meal while Abraham stands by them ready to serve them and attend to their needs.
Sarah, in the meantime, expresses doubt and a shaky faith, laughing at the prospect of having a child at her advanced age she overheard the stranger promise. On top of that, she denies that she laughed out of fear of these strange men being entertained by her husband. Yet through all of this experience of faith, hospitality and lack of faith, God cannot be deterred and fulfills God’s plan. A year later they will have a child.
The psalm response, from the gospel of Luke, reminds us of the time Mary offered hospitality to the angel Gabriel, who in turn promised that she would bear a son whom she would call Jesus. Mary’s response is the beautiful Magnificat that has been sung ever since then.
In the gospel, we are treated to the exemplary faith of the centurion who trusts Jesus’ power to heal so deeply that he could say to Jesus, “Speak but the word, and my servant will be healed,” words that we proclaim at every Eucharist before receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. Jesus is so impressed that he holds up this centurion as a model of faith for the Jews who struggled to believe in him.
Then we see Peter’s mother-in-law offering hospitality to Jesus, who in turn heals her, and she responds by immediately getting up and continuing that offer of hospitality by serving them. There is a subtle message here that our faith response to the forgiving and healing love of Jesus for us should be generous and selfless Christian service to others.
In the end, we are given a succinct description of who Jesus is – the one who has taken on our infirmities and bore our disease, and we know, as St. Paul put it, even was made sin for us who was without sin. How could we not respond to such great love except by faith, hospitality and service?
Bob is a young man who in his youth lived a totally selfish life, using others and especially women for both pleasure and monetary gain. He had no morals and would stop at nothing short of murder to attain his own selfish ends. On a trip to Latin America, he was kidnapped, put into a cistern full of bugs and given slop to eat from time to time. At one point, he fainted and had a near death experience, coming to only when they revived him, not wanting to lose their source of ransom. During his near death experience, he sensed that God was nearby, but he could not look at him and found himself crawling away from him into the clutch of numerous demons appearing as all the women he had used for his selfish purpose. Now fully recovered, he runs a safe house and is giving his life to dissuade other young people from taking the path that he took. He is expressing his transformed faith in God’s love through hospitality and service.
The Eucharist is our God once again loving us by coming to us and serving us, through Word and Sacrament.
May our celebration strengthen our faith and empower us to express our faith through generous hospitality and loving service.
