Hospitality (2025-07-20, Sunday-16)

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 [ver_03] 16^th Sunday, 2025-07-20   Homily on Luke 10:38–42 – “Come and See: The Hospitality of Presence”

[__01_] In today’s Gospel from Luke chapter 10, Jesus visits the home of Martha and Mary. It’s a familiar scene—one sister busily serving, the other sitting at His feet. But before we walk into this house at Bethany of M, M, I want to start with something that happened in my own house/neighborhood a simple invitation I received in high school.

One December, our neighbor called and asked me to pass along this message to my parents:
“Please come over Friday night to see our Christmas tree.”

I was puzzled. Why would someone invite guests just to look at their tree? I asked my mother, and she gently explained:

“They’re having us over for a Christmas gathering. The tree is just their way of saying, Come and see our home, our joy, our lives this season.”

That experience taught me something. Hospitality isn’t always loud or elaborate. Sometimes, it’s subtle. Sometimes it sounds like: “Come and see.” It’s a gesture that says: We want you here. We want to share something meaningful with you.

 

[__02_]  This declaration—“Come and see”—is also found in the Gospels. It’s what Jesus says to His first disciples when they ask where He lives. It’s what we’re told when Christ is inviting us deeper into His life.

Sometimes, in Gospel, Jesus speaks to smaller groups or individuals more intimately. Please be alert to the passages when Jesus speak to the “crowds” generally and when he chooses to speak to the 2 or 3 more intimately gathered in his name including:

-        Transfiguration moment with only Peter. James and John

-        Resurrection appearance only to Mary Magdalene

-        This Bethany “site visit” only to Martha and Mary

 

[__03_]  And so we come to Martha and Mary.

Jesus has come into their home. One sister, Martha, is working, serving, tending to many things. Mary, meanwhile, sits at the feet of Jesus, listening. And when Martha complains that she’s doing all the work, Jesus responds—not with scolding, but with love:

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.”

[__04_]  It’s easy to hear this as a contrast between good and bad. But the Church’s tradition, especially thinkers like St. Augustine, sees something richer here. Martha represents our active life on earth—the life of service, work, duty. Mary represents the contemplative life, the life of prayer and intimacy with God. Both are important. But when Jesus speaks of “the better part,” He reminds us of what must come first—presence before activity, relationship before productivity.

[__05_]  We’re not always good at this. We live in a Martha world—busy, distracted, constantly doing. But Jesus is asking us to make space to receive Him—not just to serve Him. Hospitality, in the Gospel sense, begins with making room in our hearts for His presence.

And this hospitality is not reserved for people with large homes or perfect meals or organized calendars. You might think, “I live alone. My space is too small. My life is too messy.” But the Lord didn’t visit Martha and Mary because of their furniture or their kitchen. He came because He was welcomed. The real hospitality He desires is spiritual—our attentiveness, our listening, our openness.

[__06_]  This deeper kind of hospitality—a work of mercy—shows up in many forms.

I recently watched a video about the flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas. A man named Larry Minor, a firefighter turned rescue specialist, has been working tirelessly with a team to search the area—using drones, dogs, and technology—not just to find survivors, but to recover victims, give families closure, and ensure the deceased are buried with dignity.

Is that hospitality?
Yes. It’s mercy.
It’s love for the suffering.
It’s honoring the dignity of strangers.

[__07_]  Not every act of mercy ends in a miracle. Jesus healed some people, but not all. He raised Lazarus, but Lazarus still died again. And yet, even when there is no dramatic rescue, Christ is present—in the compassion, in the comfort, in the presence we offer to others.

Hospitality, then, isn’t just what we do for guests—it’s what we offer to anyone in need. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us plainly:

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was sick and you visited me.”

[__08_]  And sometimes, the “stranger” isn’t an unknown visitor at all. Sometimes, it’s the person we’ve become estranged from. The neighbor we’ve avoided. The family member we haven’t spoken to in years. The person who wounded us—or whom we’ve wounded.

Can we welcome Christ in that person?

Can we make space in our hearts not just for friends, but for those who do not love us back?

[__09_]  This is where the Gospel challenges us most. Hospitality is not decoration—it’s devotion. It’s not just opening your door—it’s opening your life. And sometimes that starts with a simple, quiet invitation: Come and see.

So today, let Martha and Mary remind us to make room—room in our lives and our schedules, room in our homes and in our relationships—for Jesus to be present. Let that neighbor’s Christmas tree be a sign for us—not of ornament or obligation, but of warmth and grace. And let our hospitality be more than social—it must be spiritual. A mercy. A love that reflects the love we’ve already received.

 John Paul II reflection on Luke 10:38-42:  / JOHN PAUL II  ANGELUS, abridged

Sunday, 22 July 2001

. Today's Gospel presents the episode of Jesus' visit to Bethany, to the home of Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. Martha is very concerned with her preparations, while Mary sits peacefully at the feet of the Master listening to him. To Martha who complains that her sister does not help her, Jesus responds that "Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Lk 10,42).

How can we not perceive in this episode the reminder of the primacy of the spiritual life, of the need to be nourished with the Word of God which gives light and savour to our daily routine. It is an invitation which is particularly opportune for the summer period. Holidays and vacation time, in fact, can help to balance activism with contemplation, haste with natural rhythms, great noise with the healing peace of silence.

 

3. A further source of reflection comes from the liturgy. On 22 July we celebrate the memorial of St Mary Magdalene, disciple of the Lord and first witness of the Resurrection. The story of St Mary of Magdala shows how decisive it is for each one of us to meet Christ personally. It is Christ who understands the human heart. It is he who can satisfy its hopes and longings and give answers to the concerns and the difficulties that humanity today faces in its daily endeavours.