The Practice of Hospitality: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

                                              The Practice of Hospitality:

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

July 20, 2025

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Genesis 18:10-10; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42

 

Both Gospel passages tell us about the importance of hospitality, and I could easily make this into a statement about our current national practice of deportations and arrests without due process, which deserves its own study. I could also make this about society’s unfair and inequitable treatment of women, which also deserves proper time and attention. Forgive me for not addressing those today, and please know I am available to speak and to listen about these topics at a suitable time. I want to focus upon the need for our practice of hospitality as a way of life because we need to move back towards our original characteristic as a people of God. 

 

In Genesis, we encounter a scene that marks both a profound encounter with God and a pivotal moment in Abraham’s life. In the passage, the Lord appeared to him. This is no ordinary visitation. It is a scene in which God reveals God’s self personally to Abraham when he rests at the entrance of his tent. It is a sign that God desires a relationship with humanity, the people of the covenant, and that God is near and concerned for our human affairs. In the preceding passages of Genesis, a quick set of actions occurred. God made a covenant with Abraham, gave Abram and Sarai a new name, asked for male circumcision to be the mark of the covenant, and promised that Sarah’s new son will be given the promise of the covenant. Abraham and Sarah practiced hospitality for the traveler and stranger and welcomed the God who desired to be with the people. 

 

This passage is paired with the Gospel in which Jesus visits the house of Mary and Martha in which Jesus desires attention as the defining mark of hospitality. Hospitality and sharing a meal foster good relationships. People gain a deeper understanding of each other as we do simple things like break bread, entertain one another, and share gifts. In biblical times, villagers were responsible for offering hospitality to travelers. The stranger was to be transformed from being a potential threat to becoming an ally, and the guest remained under the protection of the host for the duration of the visit. The guest was not to ask for anything and was to be treated with the finest of the household. Obviously, we cannot act in the same way today, and the hospitality industry is an integral part of the economy, but we can examine how we make strangers and travelers feel welcome. 

 

          Jesus instructs Mary and Martha to simply attend to those gathered in their house. We have to communicate to the other person: I am here for you. The best gift we can give someone is your attentive presence. Showing up is both a practice and an art. Choosing to be present to our loved ones is a practice of love. To be there for a person communicates that you love him or her. When you are attentive to the other person, your mind is rooted in the present moment and then we can begin to love that person. You cannot love properly and deeply without being mindful of the other person. You recognize, you see, the other person, and you let your loved one know this his or her presence is important to you. To love means to be aware of the presence of the other person, and showing up means that their presence is something very precious to you.

 

          We need more of this. We need more time together. We need to really see and behold each other by our attentiveness. Without it, we feel alone and without support. Letting others know that you see them, understand them, and care for them is today’s practice of hospitality. We change the world for the better when we behold each other in awe and amazement, and we create a deep lasting bond of friendship. When we see each other in this way, we know God is visiting us.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Exodus 14) When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds about them. They exclaimed, "What have we done! Why, we have released Israel from our service!"

 

Tuesday: (Song of Songs 3) The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves–I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves.

 

Wednesday: (Exodus 16) Here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of Israel
grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The children of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!

 

Thursday: (Exodus 19) In the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt,
on its first day, the children of Israel came to the desert of Sinai. After the journey from Rephidim to the desert of Sinai, they pitched camp.

 

Friday (2 Corinthians 4) We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus.

 

Saturday (Exodus 24) When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD. 

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 10) "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's enemies will be those of his household.

 

Tuesday: (John 20) On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter.

 

Wednesday (Matthew 13) Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.

 

Thursday (Matthew 13) "Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?" He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

 

Friday (Matthew 20) The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom."

 

Saturday (Matthew 13) “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.

 

Saints of the Week

 

July 20: Apollinaris, bishop and martyr (1st century) was chosen directly by Peter to take care of souls in Ravenna. He lived through the two emperors whose administrations exiled and tortured him, though he was faithful to his evangelizing work to his death.

 

July 21: Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and doctor (1559-1619) was a Capuchin Franciscan who was proficient in many languages and well-versed in the Bible. He was selected by the pope to work for the conversion of the Jews and to fight the spread of Protestantism. He held many positions in the top administration of the Franciscans.

 

July 22: Mary Magdalene, apostle (1st century), became the "apostle to the apostles" as the first witness of the resurrection. Scriptures point to her great love of Jesus and she stood by him at the cross and brought spices to anoint his body after death. We know little about Mary though tradition conflates her with other biblical woman. Luke portrays her as a woman exorcised of seven demons. 

 

July 23: Bridget of Sweden, religious (1303-1373), founded the Bridgettine Order for men and women in 1370, though today only the women’s portion has survived. She desired to live in a lifestyle defined by prayer and penance. Her husband of 28 years died after producing eight children with Bridget. She then moved to Rome to begin the new order.

July 24: Sharbel Makhuf, priest (1828-1898), joined a monastery in the Maronite tradition and lived as a hermit for 23 years after living fifteen years in the community. He became known for his wisdom and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

 

July 25: James, Apostle (1st century), is the son of Zebedee and the brother of John. As fishermen, they left their trade to follow Jesus. They occupied the inner circle as friends of Jesus. James is the patron of Spain as a shrine is dedicated to him at Santiago de Compostela. He is the patron of pilgrims as many walk the Camino en route to this popular pilgrim site. 

 

July 26: Joachim and Anne, Mary's parents (1st century) are names attributed to the grandparents of Jesus through the Proto-Gospel of James. These names appeared in the Christian tradition though we don't know anything with certitude about their lives. Devotion of Anne began in Constantinople in the 6th century while Joachim gained acclaim in the West in the 16th century. He was revered in the Eastern churches since the earliest times. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• July 20, 1944. An abortive plot against Adolf Hitler by Claus von Stauffenberg and his allies resulted in the arrest of Fr. Alfred Delp. 
• July 21, 1773. In the Quirinal Palace, Rome, Clement XIV signed the Brief for the suppression of the Society. 
• July 22, 1679. The martyrdom at Cardiff, Wales, of St Phillip Evans. 
• July 23, 1553. At Palermo, the parish priests expressed to Fr. Paul Achilles, rector of the college, indignation that more than 400 persons had received Holy Communion in the Society's church, rather than in their parish churches. 
• July 24, 1805. In Maryland, Fr. Robert Molyneux was appointed the first superior by Father General Gruber. 
• July 25, 1581. In the house of the Earl of Leicester in London, an interview occurred between Queen Elizabeth and Edmund Campion. The Queen could scarcely have recognized the worn and broken person before her as the same brilliant scholar who had addressed here at Oxford 15 years before. 
• July 26, 1872. At Rome, the greater part of the Professed House of the Gesu was seized and appropriated by the Piedmontese government.