December 4

Chapter 53 pt. 1

The Rule of Benedict December 4

This passage goes to great lengths to assure that the essence of hospitality is practiced by the community--Christ, "received in  [guests'] persons."  There are many ways in which we have occasion to practice such hospitality in our life together on a parish level, and many ways that we can forsake it.  When it comes to being hospitable to the poor, in whom Christ is "especially" received, a reflection from our brother, Robert, is appropriate to consider:

Every time I see people try to weasel out of a charitable human spirit, I remember that an antidote to it is found in --of all places-- the Christian Patristic Fathers.
Gregory Nazienzen, a bishop in the 370s, confronted reasons people give to not help the poor, reasons that are as familiar to us as they were to Gregory: some people deserve to be poor, they brought it upon themselves, there is "not enough", or it's a punishment from God. Gregory will have none of it. In fact, in the face of these objections, service to the poor is necessary so that we might "restrain those who have such an attitude towards [the poor], and [that we] might not give in to their foolish arguments, making cruelty into a law turned against our very selves."