By MARIA SERMERSHEIM
MEDITATIONE IGNIS
I firmly believe that receiving hospitality — especially entirely gratuitous hospitality from strangers — is one of the most refreshing ways to be human. It reflects the real state of our relationship with God and forces us to face the fact that everything is a gift, and no repayment is sufficient. It makes us feel poignantly Paul’s rhetorical question: “What do you have that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7).
My friend Katherine and I are poor graduate students who needed to learn French this summer for our theological research, and we have reflected a lot on the striking generosity of the families that have hosted us this summer in France while we study our textbooks and immerse ourselves in French. We are strangers to these Frenchmen and women, connected only by our common devotion to Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross — the French religious community that founded and runs the University of Notre Dame and that staffed Reitz Memorial High School for many years. Yet, these families have welcomed us into their homes and daily routines; they have sought out special foods to taste and landmarks to see; and their patience with our extremely rudimentary French is astonishing. These strangers have welcomed us incredibly generously, and our gratitude surpasses the capacity of any thank-you note or gift. It is wonderful-but-challenging to receive gifts of such magnitude.
Such true hospitality is not something one can repay in any measurable currency. The exchange would be entirely asymmetrical: the value of the gift of this hospitality is infinite, and imagining repaying it is laughable. Money and gifts are too meager — and perhaps even insulting — because we weren’t renting a room this summer; we were sharing life! Reflecting on the grandeur of the gift can make it difficult to receive, but that startling and uncomfortable fact forces us to recognize that the daily reality of life is the same: God showers us with infinite gifts. He created us, sustains us and continues to bestow further gifts on us. Nothing we can do will ever repay it. But it is necessary to do justice to the gift; and the only justice that can be done is to receive it well by sharing life lovingly and generously. “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Matt 10:8). We can and should jump at the opportunities to do the dishes and other little acts of service, but they can never tabulate a sufficient payment in the divine balance book — for our host families or for God. Each moment is only another step along the path of trying to love the other and say thank you in every act.
Receiving hospitality is refreshing because it challenges us to accept a disproportionate gift, which reflects the true structure of our lives. “What do you have that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7). It is refreshing because it is impossible to repay, and the only justice that can be done to the gift is to do what we should always do: love patiently and generously.