Fr. Eric: The idea of hospitality can be found throughout the bible. In the ancient world, in especially in areas of desert and heat and all, people have the expectation that if someone came to you in need of water or food, you would do that. Doesn't necessarily mean you like them or trusted them and all, but that's what everyone would be able to do. Hospitality grows through the way that Jesus shows hospitality, And he is the example for every Christian community of how we encounter people and practice what is called hospitality. Hospitality is not just about being friendly.
What a friendly place. Everyone is so friendly. Hospitality isn't something we practice so our numbers will grow, and we'll get bigger because we're such a hospitable place. And it's not something that we do just so that we can be social and feel like we're included. Hospitality is giving dignity to every person, and the way we treat them and how we see them.
There's an old saying that I'm gonna walk through with you in today's gospel that says this about hospitality. The opposite of hospitality is not hostility but blindness. The hospital the opposite of hospitality is not hostility but blindness. That's what we see in today's gospel, chapter nine from the gospel of John. This man is born blind, and the first people who are blind are the disciples.
Who else? They don't always get it with Jesus, do they? And here's what they tell Jesus further earlier in this gospel here. They say, rabbi, whose sin caused this man to be born blind and suffer? Was it his sin or his parents?
The belief was at that time that suffering was caused by sinning, and it could even be passed on from the parents to the children as well. So they encounter the blind person as a problem. What's the problem to be solved and not see them as someone who is in need of help and healing? How about the blindness in you and I when we see a group of people or person automatically first as a problem. I don't know if they belong here.
I don't know if they fit in. I don't know if they could be trusted. I I don't think they look like us and and be like us, and they're just totally different. So how what are we gonna do with them? They all take and and they don't give back at all.
So what we do is we make people a problem first before seeing them as human beings, and that's the blindness of the disciples. And if we're honest, maybe even us. Jesus shows that the person is not a problem, meaning that's not the first thing we see, but rather we see the person. The second one are the group of neighbors to the blind person. Here's what they do.
They go up to him. Aren't you the beggar that used to be out in front and annoy us all? And you kept begging. Yeah. That was me.
And other ones go, oh, no. It's someone that looks like him. Sometimes we define people by their past, and they're only our labels. If they do not fit our label and the expectation on them, you know, then we don't even we don't even see them. And so we tell people, we make them hang on to their past mistakes or or things that you and I judged harshly about them because we heard about them or, yeah, they're all that type of people or, yeah, that type of person.
Some reliable gossip told me about them, so it must be true. And when we label people and they don't fit into that realm, we can be hostile and not hospitable. And what does Jesus do? And when you and I do this, we don't cling to people's past. We don't make them hold on to it, but we allow them to change.
That's hospitality. The third thing are the pharisees are blind to God. Here's what they asked. They said, what did this man do to you? He made me see.
Well, didn't he know that was on a Sabbath? He's not allowed to do any of that healing on the Sabbath. What a rule breaker he is. And so they're not rejoicing in the miracle. They're rejoicing in their control and their need to be rigid and saying, these are the rules that must be followed.
Don't we do that sometimes that we have rules? The rules is you're not allowed to take in any money. You're not allowed to get any assistant. You're not allowed to do all things because that's more important, the rules and regulations because if everybody put their hand in the dish, we won't have anything left. I hear that all the time.
And sometimes because we live in scarcity rather than sharing. And so we do not even appreciate when god uses people that we don't expect or they surprise us and go, wow. I never expected that from you. The blindness to hospitality is then no. You you are your past, and we're not gonna let you forgive it.
And true hospitality allows people to change because why? God has helped them change. The fourth are the parents. We will read a little bit more here. The parents are approached by the pharisees, and they say, is this your son?
Is this your son? They go up to him because, again, they're not sure, and the parents are scared to death. Because if we say we stand with our son, they're gonna get kicked out of the synagogue. So the parents do this thing and go, we don't know. You ask him.
He's of age. Ask him. And they're not willing to stand with the vulnerable. They're not willing to stand up for their son because of fear. Hospitality and the lack of it is when we won't stand for the vulnerable because everyone, it seems like in the area who I hang out with or who I talk to or my kind of thinking, you know what?
We're against those kind of people or that kind of group or that person. And so we won't stand when the vulnerable and yet the church for two thousand years has been called through 2,000 verses in the bible. 2,000 verses in the bible that says, care for the vulnerable, the poor. Yes. Even the blind.
But our blindness is healed when hospitality says, you are a human being. You matter. The opposite of hospitality is blindness, and the lack of hospitality is denying any person the title image of God that they matter. Do you know who practice hospitality really well? Our patron saint, Saint Patrick.
He also was one of hospitality. And I don't know if he gave donuts after mass, but here's what we know about him. He was kidnapped as a child and taken to Ireland and was a slave for six years. He was held captive by people there. No one there to save him.
No one to say you shouldn't be doing that there. He was there on the countryside taking care of sheep and being out in the middle of nowhere. And somehow, God, later on in his life, when he escapes, is called to go back to be with the very people that held him captive. He does it without resentment. He approaches with forgiveness.
That's hospitality. And willing to preach Christ's name to a people who were once his enemies. That's hospitality. And when you and I do that and no longer see people or label them as an enemy, as someone against us, someone who hurt me, and you have to be paid, or we need revenge, or we need to feel even. Saint Patrick shows us the way of forgiveness.
Saint Patrick entered homes and villages to eat with the people. He did not preach from a distance and talked about Christ and say, hey. Let me tell you about Christ from way over there. He entered the homes of the people in the villages and ate with them, talked with them, and cared for them. And he was the recipient of their hospitality.
And the hospitality is one of sitting down breaking bread and acknowledge who they are and the gifts they have. Some of the, most generous people I've ever come across are poor people who barely have enough food, and it's humbling to sit down in their home and say, we made you everything. Here, father, we brought you an extra steak. It cost us everything. You say yes because of their generosity.
Also, he respected the culture of all while teaching Christianity. The hospitality is recognizing the tradition, even the pagan tradition. He didn't force them to change and say, you're all wrong. You should be dropping everything. Don't believe in those things anymore.
He took them where they're at, and he respected, but he would use their symbols and signs as a way to teach Christ. So rather than going in and just saying, everything you believed is wrong, it's a joke, it's a sin, if you keep believing that way, you're all going to hell. How many times do we hear Christians say that to people? And Patrick listened and even allowed them to keep some things, but use those symbols even like the shamrock and other images to say that he is Christ. That is hospitality.
He also welcomed the poor, the slaves, and women. Here's what we know about his writings, that he cared for the slaves and he baptized them. People who had no standing, people who had no power, people who couldn't do anything in return for him. He spoke strongly for those who were slaves to be included into the body of Christ. They have nothing to offer.
Not even society would recognize them as human beings and Patrick does. Patrick also wrote a lot about women who choose religious life for their protection, for their dignity. And Patrick showed hospitality to the poor. Again, people who are vulnerable, who have no say, who can't help anyone else except just to be there. That's the hospitality.
When you and I live that is what Patrick did, and he risked his own life to go into hostile territory. Hospitality then of seeing these people who who were threatening his life, who were against Christianity. He was able to risk his own life to say, I see you as a brother and sister. And so my friends, we are all blind in different way to people. Let's be honest.
I am, and I know all of us are as well. The opposite of hospitality is not hostility. It's blindness. Already choosing not to trust people, choosing to say it's okay to not treat people with dignity or accept who they are and know that they have value and that Christ dwells within them. And so as we celebrate our feast day today, Patrick isn't just someone we drink green beer with this week.
He is a saint who practiced hospitality and stood with the vulnerable and gave dignity to the Irish people and those he encountered.
Speaker 1: This has been a Saint Patrick Catholic Community podcast. For more of our shows, go to our website and click Saint Patrick's Studio.