Beginning in the days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I started filling Santa's sleigh with gratitude messages to deliver to the Holy Family in the stable at Bethlehem. Before a rosary lunch I held in November and before Thanksgiving dinner, we invited our guests, from the littlest on up, to write notes of gratitude to God in thanksgiving for all his gifts. That little sleigh full of thanks will grace our kitchen table throughout the Christmas season. I love to sit there and pull out reminders of the many gifts God gives us. And to add still more love notes. Praise be to You, Lord Jesus Christ.
Father Tom's message today reminds us that gratitude is closely linked to hospitality. Doesn't the person who has received so much from God want to pass it on to others? And doesn't our inhospitality, perhaps to those we consider "enemies," say more about us than them? These days I like to think of Camp Kreitzer as a Benedictine monastery where family, friends, and even strangers are welcomed and offered hospitality. Today I want to offer spiritual hospitality by praying an extra rosary for those who persecute us and rebel against God. Maybe I'll even send a Christmas card to the White House. Those who are running away from God need our compassion, not our judgment.
And now, here's Father Tom Collins' gift for these last few days of Advent:
No Room in the Inn by Fr. Tom Collins
As we prepare to celebrate the Birth of Jesus, we are led to reflect on the fact that He was born in a stable, since there was no room for the Holy Family at the Bethlehem inn. This brings to light an important spiritual truth. It is impossible to show hospitality without repentance. While we usually use sin as the premises for understanding the nature of repentance, a more accurate paradigm is that of inhospitality.
When we sin, the inclination of our fallen human nature is to seek justification and restoration through excuses and resentments, rather than by showing God and His gracious mercy the hospitality of sincere repentance. This was tragically indicated by our first parents in Gen 3: 12-13.
It should be noted, however, that hospitality can only become incarnate through another form of repentance. In order to welcome another, we must be willing to repent of our normal daily routine, so as to accommodate his/her unique needs and tastes. This involves a certain degree of awkwardness, just as sincere repentance from sin and receptivity to God's gifts of mercy and reconciliation necessarily involves a bit of awkwardness in the heart of a penitent. After all, we cannot enjoy regenerative communion with God's mercy by seeking to be in control of that mercy.
In addition, we must note that, as indicated in the Lord's Prayer, authentic mercy cannot be hoarded as a possession, but must be shared as a gracious gift. Likewise, we should note that, in the life of the Mystical Body of Christ, there is always a mutuality of ministry. For example, God has so arranged the spiritual life that, as we relieve the needs of the poor, they relieve us of our stinginess and greed. No one can legitimately boast, but only gratefully rejoice in the privilege of sharing more deeply in the mystery and ministries of divine graciousness offered to us through the Holy Spirit, as we are being more deeply integrated into Christ.
This mutuality of ministry is also brought to fruition whenever we sincerely apologize for offending another, since in doing so, we offer the one we have offended the opportunity to be delivered from a crippling and festering resentment.
On the first Christmas, the people in Bethlehem were so preoccupied with their own needs and agendas, that they failed to appreciate the privilege they were being offered by the coming of the Holy Family in their midst.
Today, we can avoid a repetition of their tragic neglect by offering the Christ Child the hospitality of sincere and regenerative repentance.
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