Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot

Lectionary: 389

“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is righteous 
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because he is a disciple–
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

Today, as we celebrate the great Abbot Saint Benedict, the Gospel reminds us of hospitality, the eager willingness to receive others into our neighborhoods, churches, homes, and lives. And, in the wake of the SCOTUS Dobbs decision, we ponder again our willingness as a nation to receive infants with all their promises and all their demands. Despite the claims of many, that willingness cannot be contained or limited by the few child-bearing women among us. Child bearing and rearing are universal responsibilities and universal privileges. 

As the oldest of ten children I well remember my mother's discomfort during her pregnancies. She shared that discomfort in more ways than one; and her husband and children suffered with her. But we also welcomed each newborn with delight, and received them as emissaries from God. Their wishes were our commands. I have watched my sisters and brothers receive their children with the same eager hospitality. 

The scriptures recognize only some restrictions to our hospitality; more often they describe the readiness we should practice. That welcome includes the aid of the Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho. It is as eager as Phillip who ran alongside the chariot to ask what the Ethiopian eunuch was reading. It remembers Abraham's courtesy to three strangers as he rested by the Oak of Mamre, and Sarah's response when she heard their pronouncement. (She laughed, and named the child laughter.) 

If our hospitality may be limited, I find this helpful advice in 2 Corinthians 8: 12-15

For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have; not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality your surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their surplus may also supply your needs, that there may be equality. As it is written: “Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less.” 

The principle is as simple as the water which seeks its own level between connected chambers. 

Many will argue this much generosity is simply unrealistic, it can never happen. But neither is our guarded restraint realistic. We have only to witness the endemic violence that afflicts every nation and age. Is that not a consequence of our unwillingness to trust the ever-resourceful Providence of God? Pope Francis reminds us of our unnatural waste when he cites the natural world. It recycles and reuses every element and every chemical endlessly. Nothing goes to waste in our world except human life and the structures we make. 

There on the American dollar is the eye within the triangle, 

a symbol of God's providence. Were the artists who proposed it and the Congress who approved it intentionally cynical about our trust in God. Perhaps the Enlightened Founders believed in the ideal but did not believe it should be realized. It was no more than an ideal: pretty, charming, and useless. 

Confronted with the biblical principle of radical trust in God and a corresponding hospitality to others we should not argue about ideals and reality. Rather we must confess our sinful unwillingness. "Yes, I believe that in God all things are possible, but I have not chosen to live that way." 

There is shame in sin; there is no shame in confessing our sins and turning to God for help. In God's spirit we can do better today. I can do better today.