<p><em>Nearly everyone recalls the strict social structures of in-groups and out-groups in a high school cafeteria. There are no signs but everyone knows where they are welcome to sit. Todays reflection reminds us that adults can also get stuck in such excluding patterns and invites us to be rooted in a love that knows no such boundaries.</em></p><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><p><strong>July 2 2023: Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time</strong></p><p>2 Kings 2:8-11 14-16a</p><p>Psalm 89:2-3 16-17 18-19</p><p>Roman 6: 3-4. 8-11</p><p>Matthew 10: 37-48</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Rooted in Welcoming</h3><p><em>A reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Christ In the Strangers Guise</p><p>- Alfred Burt <strong>(<a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82rce3ykv84 target=_blank>Listen here</a>)</strong></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>I met a stranger yestreeen.</em></p><p><em>I put food in the eating place</em></p><p><em>Drink in the drinking place</em></p><p><em>Music in the listening place.</em></p><p><em>And in the Name of the Triune</em></p><p><em>He bless my home and my house</em></p><p><em>My cattle and my love ones.</em></p><p><em>And the lark sings in his song.</em></p><p><em>Often often often goes the Christ in the strangers guise.</em></p><p><em>Often often often goes the Christ in the strangers guise.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Much has been written about the need for radical hospitality. At DignityUSAs 50th anniversary convention in Chicago I recall it looming large in our deliberations. One individual who expounded on that concept was someone with whom I had had a conversation earlier that day. I spoke of our needed to diversify the religious music: it needed to be more than a couple verses in Spanish in a song written by and for American Catholics. I also shared my belief that we overused contemporary forms of Christian music.</p><p>The person walked away abruptly not allowing me to finish my thought and I felt my concerns were once again being dismissed. In that moment I felt unseen and unheardradically unwelcomedand in a community of which I am very much a part! My conversation partner and perhaps many others in our community clearly have different liturgical tastes than I but did they mean to make me feel so marginalized? Just as concerning when I talk to members of my communities with whom I disagree (DignityUSA or others) do I treat them as if they were somehow less?</p><p>What does this have to do with radical hospitality and what does this commitment to welcoming have to do with our readings for this Sunday? Lets start with an understanding of radical it comes from the Latin radix which means root. To be radically hospitable then suggests that one is deeply rooted in welcoming others. In the selection from the Hebrew Scriptures we have the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman. She suggests to her husband that they build a 2nd floor addition for Elijah for rest and respite when he stops by their home on his prophetic preaching journeys. (Can you imagine suggesting to your significant other that you build an addition to your home to house a street preachers?) It is also worth noting that the narrative makes it clear the woman is from a different tribe and people than Elishashe should have ignored him completely even feared or hated him. But she was rooted in her desire to welcome the stranger. Wanting to repay the couple for their hospitality Elisha inquires about the desires of her heart and is told that they were childless. He assures his host that next year when he returned she would have already given birth to a son.</p><p>In the midst of the difficult teachings from Jesus in todays gospel we find a gem to meditate on: Whoever welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcome the one who sent meand whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a discipletruly I will tell you none of these will lose their reward. Fr. John McNeil tells of an encounter he had with a farmer while in a German POW Camp. He had come close to the barbed wire that separated him from a potato field where a man was gathering his harvest.&nbsp; The man saw John and realized how skinny and hungry he appeared. He swiftly tossed a potato to John and looked into Johns eyes which seemed to ask Why?. The man simply made the sign of the cross. The farmers faith was rooted in welcoming. Both men knew that if that it had seen the farmer would be executed on the spot. The mans faith reaffirmed Johns resolve to survive return home and join the Jesuitswhich he did. We also know that Fr. John McNeil ministered to gay Catholics and helped found Dignity New York. Through his writing John tossed many a gay Catholicstarving for spiritual sustenancea potato across the fence of Church exclusion. If not executed for such hospitality he was eventually excommunicated for it.</p><p>Some spiritual writers have made a distinction between entertaining and hospitality. They pointed out that one entertains to impress but offers hospitality to bless. Hospitality requires a listening ear and an open heart. We should as small faith communities ask ourselves What is our intention? when we open our doors to LGBTQIA+ peopleand any other wanderers who find their way to our communionsDo they feel welcomed or do they find us divided? Do we look at them with suspicion until they prove themselves our kind of gay Catholic? Can we recall our own first tenuous steps into our communities of faith? Who welcomed us? Who made us feel like we belongedeven with all our faults and foibles?</p><p>It is each of our tasks to embody that necessary welcome and extend a radical hospitality to every person we encounterto be rooted in welcomingno matter where we find ourselves on mutual sojourns. Then as Hebrews 13:2 reminds us we will find ourselves welcoming angels unaware.</p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=mobile-full><img class=mobile-full src=https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/uploads/static/botsannmarie_szpakowska_2988f0565167dfdd114dae1a703e89de.png alt= width=166 vspace=0 hspace=0></div><p><em><strong>Ann Marie Szpakowska</strong>&nbsp;has been active and in leadership of Dignity/Buffalo for nearly 40 years. She also participates in the Women's Caucus and has been an active contributor to Liturgical planning for Dignity's Conventions Conferences and on Feminist Liturgy Committees over many years.&nbsp;She has presented workshops both locally and at Dignity Conventions.</em></p><p><em>She has also been a member of St. Martin de Porres parish since 4 inner city churches merged and built a new sanctuary in 1993. St. Martin de Porres is a predominantly African American community in Buffalo New York.</em></p><p></p><p style=text-align: center;><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>