Dear Friends,
John Gramkee
was back at the pool at the Bayview YMCA this week. He recently turned 90. John
had had knee replacement last year, but the reason we hadn’t seen him sooner
this year is that he took 26 of his family members to Spain for a month and
they just got home last week. John wanted his grands and great-grands to live
together for at least a short time, acquiring a taste for the potential friendships
that could arise among them. He hoped so.
During the
course of summer, we visit relatives and friends. We welcome visitors to our
home or we go to see others. Family visits reveal common history, especially
when stories are told and retold.
Sometimes we
really don’t want particular visitors to come our way. How do we deal with
that?
When
travelling, we visit in other ways for other reasons.
If we are
courageous, we visit with strangers travelling along our vacation route.
We visit
museums and historic sites not just to see but to be changed, influenced, moved
by what we see and hear.
We linger in
open fields, in botanical gardens to soak in the Spirit.
Standing
before the statue of St. Peter in the Basilica at Rome, we notice that his
forward foot has been worn smooth and bright by visitors rubbing it.
Getting into
the elevator at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, we catch a whiff of
smoke.
Visiting
cemeteries evokes awareness of the circumstances which brought people to bury
their dead here.
Abraham's
hospitality was a way of life. Strangers travelling by could not pitch their
tent in Abraham's compound. But strangers were always welcome to stay within.
That's the backstory of Isaac's birth. Abraham's hospitality laid the
groundwork for the hospitality that all Jewish people, Jesus, included treasure.
In the
infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, we hear of the angel Gabriel visiting
Mary, Mary visiting Elizabeth, the shepherds and Magi visiting Jesus, Mary and
Joseph. Jesus presumed on the hospitality of Peter's mother-in-law and Zacchaeus,
when in their towns. Jesus rested well at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary.
At his birth, Jesus had to depend on the hospitality of the innkeeper and at
his death, he was laid in a stranger's tomb.
Hospitality
and visiting go hand in hand.
Today is the
feast of the Transfiguration. There on Mt. Tabor, Peter attempted to imitate the
hospitality of Abraham, wanting to build tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses.
(Matt.17.1-8) Do we want Jesus to stay with us?
Are we
hospitable to the Lord when He visits us with a thought, a desire, a question?
~ Sister
Joan Sobala
