Introduction

I can’t get no sat­is­fac­tion; I can’t get no sat­is­fac­tion…. This line is taken from the heat album of the Rolling Stones. Des­pite their pop­ular­ity and wealth, the group laments they can­not get sat­is­fac­tion. What it means is that music and wealth have not and can­not give them the spir­itu­al ful­fil­ment neces­sary to com­plete their music­al achieve­ment. What is it that gives a Chris­ti­an sat­is­fac­tion and ful­fil­ment? Last Sunday, Jesus sent out his dis­ciples on an import­ant and salvif­ic mis­sion, and gave them instruc­tions on how to be suc­cess­ful. One of those instruc­tions is not to allow fear to pre­vent them from bear­ing wit­ness to the Gos­pel and announce the mes­sage of sal­va­tion to all, and espe­cially, to denounce evil. The same instruc­tion con­tin­ues this Sunday but with a dif­fer­ent ori­ent­a­tion. What should be the disciple’s pref­er­ence? And how should people treat the dis­ciples? In the mind of Jesus, both the sent and the recip­i­ents have their respons­ib­il­it­ies and roles as regards the spread­ing of the Gos­pel and sal­va­tion. Each must not be found want­ing in his or her own responsibility.

On hospitality

As a noun, hos­pit­al­ity is “the friendly and gen­er­ous recep­tion and enter­tain­ment of guests, vis­it­ors, or strangers.” It is the “act of being friendly and wel­com­ing to guests, vis­it­ors and strangers.” It is kind­ness in wel­com­ing guests or strangers. Hos­pit­al­ity is about treat­ment, recep­tion and dis­pos­i­tion towards oth­ers. It con­sists of gifts, tra­di­tions, and kind­ness. Every homeown­er shows it, and every guest expects it. In the Ancient Greece, hos­pit­al­ity meant a lot more than giv­ing your guest the most expens­ive seat. The Ancient Greece used the word xenia to express the rela­tion­ship between the guest and the host. In oth­er words, xenia which means guest-friend­ship, is the ancient Greek concept of hos­pit­al­ity, con­sidered the gen­er­os­ity and cour­tesy shown to those who are far from home and/or asso­ci­ates of the per­son bestow­ing guest-friend­ship. The rituals of hos­pit­al­ity cre­ated and expressed a recip­roc­al rela­tion­ship between guest and host expressed in both mater­i­al bene­fits (such as the giv­ing of gifts to each party) as well as non-mater­i­al ones (such as pro­tec­tion, shel­ter, or favours).

Conclusion

The aspect of hos­pit­al­ity in the Odys­sey as repor­ted above, is a cent­ral theme in this work (Odys­sey). Most of the epic is filled with descrip­tions of the feast­ing and gift giv­ing by very gen­er­ous hosts. One con­cern of hos­pit­al­ity is the rela­tion­ship between guest and host and focuses on the shar­ing of wealth, know­ledge, and accom­mod­a­tion. Hos­pit­al­ity in this soci­ety was made to serve many dif­fer­ent pur­poses, such as pleas­ing the gods, pleas­ing guests, spread­ing a good repu­ta­tion through­out the known world, and cre­at­ing bonds between oth­er fam­il­ies and cit­ies. The repu­ta­tion of hos­pit­al­ity is passed down from fath­er to son. Hence, the bonds of hos­pit­al­ity are intergenerational.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 13^th Sunday of the year (A) is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 349–358. Happy reading!

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