July 17, 2022 (Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

It was a decades ago, but I see it still: the holiday table heavy with food, antipasti, home-made raviolis, leg of lamb, giant salad, conversations enlivened by Manhattans and wine, and homemade pies! And of course, there was the inevitable fight to get Nonna, my grandmother, to sit down and eat with us if only briefly. Italian hospitality came on platters, lasted for hours, and ended with a living room strewn with snoring bodies. There was always welcome for an extra guest. That’s hospitality, making people feel at home, making people feel special!  

We have three, or is it four, hospitality stories today.  

For nomadic Abraham, hospitality was a matter of life and death. It was a sacred duty that you welcome, feed, and entertain the sojourner so that you would be welcomed in your days of travel or need. It would have been a real feast that shared lives and stories. In the ancient world, “the shared table was a shared life.” (Walter Kasper) Freshly baked bread was blessed and shared as a pledge of friendship and peace … for the men!  

The women, well, they were busy the ones. If we read further, we learned Sarah was not at the meal with Abraham, but ease dropping: “Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him. … So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?” It was a gender-separated society; women had work to do! 

Given this background, our Gospel isn’t so easy and Martha was inhospitable, or didn’t you notice she put Jesus on the spot? …She wanted him to judge between her and her lazy lout sister Mary. … Gad, no one wants to be caught between two warring sisters!  

In Martha’s eyes, Mary was out of line! … Who did she think she was? … It was bad enough that Mary didn’t offer a woman’s hospitality of cooking and serving, but she had invaded the male space; … her place was around the hearth with other women and the children! Each day a Jewish man blessed God for not being born a woman!  … Ouch! … If you want an idea how women were treated look at the Taliban!  

Mary’s action wasn’t merely surprising; it was scandalous! Her crime was clear: Mary was acting as if she were a man. … No, wonder Martha was upset. Her sister was putting on airs and claiming a role that was not hers. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?” It was shameful for a woman to sit with men and chat. … yet Jesus is happily doing it.  

But the surprise doesn’t stop! The Gospel says, “Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.” … How does Mary both sit beside the Lord and at his feet … unless the expression means something more? … …. To set “at the feet” of a rabbi meant that you were a student studying to become a rabbi too.  

Jesus was a social scandal and a violator of the natural order. He was a bad example for women and children. … But Jesus is a revolution! He associates and eats with the wrong sort of people; his favorites are the marginalized, the sinner and women! He even speaks in public to women — horrors!  … The Church still has much to learn from Jesus.  

Jesus was not shy about associating with women, nor was Paul when he named the women leaders in his various churches, even calling one an apostle. Pope Francis is not shy either in appointing three women this month to the Sacred Congregation of Bishops that is responsible for vetting, selecting and appointing Bishops. We still have much to learn about respecting the dignity of women. 

Our second story of hospitality was the lived story of the Colossian Church and the other Pauline churches, they received Gentiles into the family of faith. We have been grafted onto Israel with Abraham as our father in faith. 

Our third of hospitality story is Jesus giving divine hospitality. … Wait, wasn’t Martha and Mary offering hospitality to Jesus! … Yes, but more. Read more closely, Jesus is offering Mary a welcome and a share in the Kingdom of God. He feeds her with the Father’s love and life and Martha is angry. … And Jesus reproves her: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. … Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.  … Mary has chosen the Kingdom!  

Mary became a guest in her own house, for Jesus offered her the hospitality of God’s new house. She was being fed with the experience of God in Jesus. Martha had offered only the hospitality of bread and wine, but Mary gave Jesus the hospitality of an open, listening heart and so Jesus offers the best hospitality of all, the welcome of the Father himself.  

When I was preparing for this homily, I came across an interesting description of the Church’s spread. St. Luke in his Acts of the Apostles says the Church spread from “household to household.” Isn’t that the way the faith should spread? Family to family!   

Jesus’ model for the Church was not the temple with its priesthood and sacrifices, but a new household, God’s household, planted in the homes of the world. There each person becomes a rabbi, a teacher welcoming, listening, and serving. Each is called to leadership. They were God’s new household with a welcome at table for every stranger. In that household, every boundary is obliterated, not by some political egalitarianism, but the overflowing love of God that makes everyone brothers and sisters.  

The Church’s first gathering places were homes; church buildings becoming a necessity only with an ever larger family of faith. …  They needed more space! 

What if we lived Jesus’ hospitality? How different we would be and our world! How differently we would live for everyone we met. … Our life’s task is two-fold: to really entrust ourselves to the Father’s hospitality, making us his sons and daughters and to live for one another as brothers and sisters. In that moment kingdom of God comes to earth.  Live God’s hospitality and come alive!