13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A June 28, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magadalen, Abbeville, LA
Toys were on the floor, the laundry was in process, but not done… is it ever done, really? But the room was prepared and there was food. One night, we even ate leftovers. I was not seeing a façade, but their actual lives through real hospitality. I’m talking about my recent visit to my family. Between my parents and my brother, I was a guest for over a week. They weren’t worried I’d see the mess because I’m family and what matters more than being picture-perfect is that I was welcome.
When we practice hospitality well, the guiding principle is not appearances, it is love. Usually, hospitality is the kind of love we offer to friends and family. Before AirBnB, nation-wide hotel chains, and high speed travel, though, having a place to stay when you travel could be a matter of life and death. So, in the culture of the ancient middle-east, hospitality was a key part of family and social love, a sacred duty.
Jesus, however, aims even higher. In this same passage on hospitality Jesus says, “whoever loves father or mother more than me… son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Yes, you should love family and friends and neighbors. You just can love them most.
As an example of this, Jesus teaches us that hospitality given to prophets, to holy people, and to his disciples earns a heavenly reward. Showing hospitality to friends and family is good, but is it “eternal rewards in heaven” good? No. So why is offering hospitality to prophets and disciples of Jesus worth so much more? Because of the love that motivates it is better. Not just family love, but charity – the kind of love that gives of oneself for the spiritual good of that person, for their salvation; loving them for and with Jesus. We love family because they are family. But Jesus is asking us to love others for the sake of God. We must love God above everything else, willing to let go of anything and everything else for God, even friends and family. But, because we love God, we end up loving even friends and family even more; loving them by wanting them to have God and God to have them.
The motivation here matters. To love family is not holy. It is good, but not automatically holy. To love someone for the sake of God is holy. Holiness is not just “being good.” Holiness is being good and doing good for God and with God. Hospitality is a good thing. Hospitality done for God,done for God’s servants because they are God’s servants… that is a holy thing so it receives a holy reward.
The first reading shows this. A “woman of influence” invites Elisha to dinner and then even creates a guest room for him. Why? Because she knows that “Elisha is a holy man of God.” That’s it. Her point is that “he’s a prophet and we love God so we should do good to him because we love God.” Elisha also loves God, which means he loves God’s people and that he is just and fair. He understands gratitude. So, even though the woman wasn’t looking for a reward, Elisha rewards her holy love with a miraculous pregnancy, with new life.
And that’s even better than you think! The Old Testament is full of true historical events like this one. God, because he is God, uses real events to foreshadow and symbolize even greater truths. This miracle of a new life in this woman’s womb truly happened, but it is also symbolic. As a reward for her holy hospitality to Elisha, God creates new life inside her. Does that sound familiar? That God would create new life in those who love him? That’s exactly what St. Paul is talking about in the second reading when he says we should live “in newness of life” by “living for God in Christ Jesus.” That’s why Jesus says that those who give a cup of cold water to a disciple will be spiritually rewarded.
Now, the initial gift of salvation is not something you earn. It’s not a reward. Salvation is a gift through faith. But God does reward us. God is so generous that he not only saves us, he gives us the chance to grow in glory! He generously allows us to participate in our own growth in holiness. He gives us salvation through faith and then gives us the grace to do good and then gives even more by rewarding us for doing good.
And one of the good things he asks us to do is show hospitality. The Roman Empire wasn’t converted to Christianity by the emperor Constantine. Constantine just made Christianity legal, but by the time he did that, 10% of his empire was already Christian. 6 million people were Christian even though it was illegal. How? Hospitality. Christians practiced hospitality towards each other, the poor, and anyone open to the truth. One household at a time, 3000 Christians converted 6 million people in the span of just 250 years. Why were Roman Christians so hospitable despite the risk of death for revealing their faith to others? Because they loved God and God asked them to be hospitable.
So, you know… show hospitality! And not just to friends and family. Show hospitality to God’s servants because they are God’s servants. Show hospitality to the poor and to anyone who might be open to the gospel. Let them see the gospel lived in deeds in your home so they will better understand it when they hear it proclaimed in words.
Am I up here saying you should invite me over? Kinda… And, like my family, don’t feel like you have to have a picture-perfect home and perfectly organized evening to have me around. You can call the office to schedule that. I’ll bring games and maybe a seminarian with me. But, actually, I’m not primarily talking about me. There are also missionaries in our community who need your support and hospitality.
More importantly, there are the people in this Church with you. I began by talking about my family, but the truth is that their hospitality towards me is more than a family bond. They are not just blood relatives, but fellow disciples who happily join me for daily Mass on vacations, who ask me to baptize and catechize their children, who want me to exhort them and strengthen their own understanding of the faith.
Look around, these people are your true family! Some of them are truly righteous. Some of them are prophets. Most are fellow disciples of Christ. Do you offer them a cup of cold water? Do you ever “receive” them into your home so that you can “receive” Jesus Christ into your home?… into your heart?
Abbeville has been a majority Catholic town for 200 years and nearly everyone else is some kind of Christian, so it’s easy for us to forget the urgency of evangelization. But that’s not a good excuse and the facts on the ground are changing fast. If we do not breathe “new life” into our faith, if we do not practice evangelical hospitality now, we will soon find ourselves surrounded by non-believers and sorely lacking in the skills and experience to share the gospel. And what makes Abbeville such a great place? Many things, but at it’s core, it is the Catholic culture and heritage, the generations of robust family life rooted in an authentic way of life. Do you want to preserve what is best of this community? To encourage the right kind of growth and development of our home? Then live the gospel in your homes and invite others into those homes! Live the gospel and bring that gospel with you into the homes of others!
Seriously, do it this week! I invite you… I challenge you to invite a fellow parishioner into your home. Even if it doesn’t happen this week, at least make the invitation within the next 7 days. Or invite yourself to their home! Look for someone you don’t already visit often. It doesn’t need to be a stranger, but stretch at least a little. Don’t worry about being a burden if you’re the one visiting. Elisha’s visit is what gave new life to his hosts. Whether you’re the one hosting or the one being hosted, God can use you to give “new life” to your faith and the faith of others.
I send you… Jesus Christ sends you to belong to one another – to “love one another.” Receive one another, then, that you might receive Jesus Christ. Little ones, dear disciples, show this love to one another you and you will surely not lose your reward!