Hospitality
The dinner party.
I mentioned on my other blog that I attended a dinner party Saturday night. I enjoyed myself, I hadn’t been a guest in my friend’s house for several years… 9 years to be exact. It wasn’t that I was never invited, I just declined the invitations until they stopped. We saw one another occasionally, but I pretty much kept to myself - “I had become preoccupied, trying to remember something too important to forget… I had a new project. That would never be finished.”
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A couple of weeks ago, my friends came over for dinner at my house. It was a good reunion, I understood that keeping a distance from one another may have been necessary for me, but our friendship was an important one nevertheless. It was good to have that affirmed.
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Last evening’s dinner party was slightly different. I was a guest in their house once again, and though things had changed, a great deal remained the same. I no longer felt threatened or intimidated by their wealth or lifestyle, nor did I feel “morally superior” because of lifestyle differences or religious conviction. Instead, I suppose I felt myself their equal, that we were all travellers on the same ship, as it were.
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Later, in my imagination, I looked around the table and noted how everyone seemed to be discussing himself, and thus everyone inadvertently revealed an aspect of their vulnerability - some more than others. It is difficult for me to explain… But I had the strangest impression that I was from a slightly different “world”… a vastly different landscape. Being a practicing Catholic has that effect I guess.
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As I said, I enjoyed the evening, but I woke up this morning a little sad about the pain and discontent in people’s lives. The emptiness of riches, the alienation of sexuality outside of marriage, the self-complacency academic accomplishment often engenders…
Something a saint said:
There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family.
Find them.
Love them.Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well. - Blessed Mother Teresa
