God appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, and bowed to the ground. ‘My lord’, he said ‘I beg you, if I find favour with you, kindly do not pass your servant by. A little water shall be brought; you shall wash your feet and lie down under the tree. Let me fetch a little bread and you shall refresh yourselves before going further. That is why you have come in your servant’s direction.’ Genesis 18: 1-10a
Even today, hospitality among desert-dwellers is a top priority. Bedouins living in the desert regions of North Africa and the Middle East extend hospitality to total strangers. It would be the worst of insults to refuse their invitations. Inhabitants of desert regions realise that, if they do not reach out to one another, all are at risk of perishing. Probably, the most well-known representation of Abraham’s welcome to the three strangers described in today’s first reading from Genesis is Andrei Rublev’s icon that is often labelled as “The Trinity”. Abraham’s extravagance reflected both the extravagance of the hospitality of desert dwellers and the extravagance of God. While the visitors were three in number, Abraham directed Sarah to make bread for them from 50 pounds of flour, and he had his servants butcher a whole animal to provide them with meat. All these preparations were a demonstration of his lavish hospitality and a mark of his status and wealth.
Complementing this story is Luke’s account in today’s gospel-reading of the hospitality extended to Jesus by Martha and Mary. The manner in which the two sisters reached out to Jesus involved violations of traditional protocol on the part of each of them. A woman was not supposed to welcome a man into her place of abode. Moreover, only men aspiring to become rabbis were allowed to sit at the feet of a teacher. Women were not allowed to fill the role of disciples. It is important to note that Jesus did not tell Martha that her rightful place was in the kitchen, and did not remind Mary that she was out of order in sitting at his feet taking in his teaching.
It is important for us to remember the broad context in which Luke has located this story of Martha and Mary. Jesus was heading for Jerusalem and had a premonition of the hostility and violence that lay ahead of him. He had enlisted the help of the seventy-two disciples to support him in proclaiming his central message about the kingdom of God. He had instructed them to travel lightly, to accept whatever hospitality was offered to them, to bring peace, healing and compassion to everyone they encountered. He emphasised the importance of the inseparable link between love of God and love of neighbour through the story of the Good Samaritan. So, to suggest that he was reprimanding Martha for putting too much time into preparing a meal for him does not make sense. It is clear, however, that he was gripped with a sense of urgency to convey his message of God’s kingdom to anyone and everyone who would listen to him. He was not going to be fussed by discriminatory rules and regulations about women being excluded from being disciples. Nor was he going to be drawn into settling the complaint that Martha had raised about Mary’s failure to help in the kitchen.
Martha was out of place in trying to involve in a domestic spat the guest she had invited into their home. In the tradition of Jewish hospitality, a guest’s needs were regarded as paramount. Jesus was intent on sharing his message and Mary had given him her full attention by sitting at his feet to listen. Underneath this story is the message that true hospitality means being fully present to a guest anyone invites into his or her home. Presence to everyone we entertain is absolutely essential, for it is integral to building genuine and lasting relationships. Presence to the God to whom we reach out when we pray is a necessary component of building our relationship with God.
Martha’s social gaffe of expressing her frustration and self-pity to a distinguished guest did not elicit criticism from Jesus. Instead, he reminded both his hosts of the importance of being truly present to everyone with whom they engaged. And isn’t that a message we all need to heed?
That takes us back to today’s first reading. Abraham and Sarah were exemplary hosts. They extended a faultless welcome to guests who were total strangers. In his icon of that event, Rublev depicts the three visitors being energised by the company of one another. In my early years of novitiate formation, I and my fellow novices were urged to “live in the presence of God”. I have to admit that, at the age of 18, I didn’t have a clue as to what was meant by that. However, isn’t it true that God’s Spirit dwells deep within each of us and in every person we encounter? I have since discovered that “living in the presence of God” is being present to God who is present in every person and every event with whom and with which we engage. That calls for constant alertness and sensitivity to all the events that make up our day and to everyone who crosses our path.