“Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received.”
- Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century
Hospitality is one of the highest forms of devotion. Receiving poor people and pilgrims with great care and concern is an essential part of Christian worship. As such, hospitality must be total and complete. It is more than providing food and shelter; it is recognizing another as family, as brother and sister in Christ. In all humility, we are to convey with our whole selves, “You are welcome here. Please come in. You are the Christ for us in this moment.”
On Friday, I went to check on some Bhutanese-Nepali friends who arrived a few weeks ago from Nepal. When they opened the door for me, they folded their hands, bowed their heads and greeted me by saying, “Namaste.” Chittester says that in India, “Namaste means I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are as one.”
In their humble home, I received the gifts of hospitality, presence and service. They made a space for me to sit on the sofa and gave me a cold drink. A family member walked next door to find a neighbor to interpret so they could tell me about their first few weeks in Nashville. One of the children brought a puzzle over to where I was sitting and invited me to put it together with her. They taught me how to say some words in Nepalese, and we all laughed together as I tried to remember and pronounce them correctly.
I learned a couple of things that day about hospitality. One is that in welcoming and receiving Christ in the poor and the pilgrims, I am also welcomed and received as Christ by them. True Christian hospitality is more than simply receiving the gift of Christ in the poor; it is also a return of the gift. It is to recognize and honor the love, light, truth and peace of the Divine in one another.
The other thing I learned about hospitality from my Bhutanese-Nepali friends is that it isn’t so much what one does for others as it is the way in which one does it. One can merely give another food and drink or one can give it in the spirit of fellowship and communion. One can simply offer a guest the comforts of the house or one can take the time to share life’s joys with them. Hospitality is not simply receiving the stranger; it is welcoming a brother or sister home.
Caren is a student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School currently interning with World Relief Nashville for the 2011-2012 academic year.
