Hospitality is a universal value, but this does not mean that everyone practices it in the same way. For example, Filipinos show their hospitality by giving the best to their guests. They will bring out the best pillowcase that they don’t ordinarily use for their guests to sleep on.
Like Filipinos, Eskimos are known to be hospitable people as well. To show their hospitality, men traditionally let their wives sleep with their guests! In the Philippines, if the husband catches the guest sleeping with his wife, that is the end of Filipino hospitality. The guest will surely end up in the hospital!
Today’s readings tell us a very unique kind of hospitality: welcoming messengers who proclaim God’s word. In the First Reading (2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a), a pagan couple receive the prophet Elisha and prepare a room for him “and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp” (2 Kgs 4:10). In the Second Reading (Rom 6:3-4, 8-11), Saint Paul speaks of the first time we welcome Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, into our lives: our Baptism. In the Gospel (Mt 10:37-42), Jesus says to his apostles, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (Mt 10:40).
We find the relevance of the theme of this Sunday’s readings if we consider the messengers and their messages that we receive into our homes and into our devices.
In these confusing times, how do we recognize true prophets? How can we tell if they truly walk the talk? Today’s readings help us how to recognize and welcome true prophets.
In the First Reading, the pagan couple decided to welcome the prophet Elisha because the woman had sensed that “Elisha is a holy man of God” (2 Kgs 4:9). It is important to have that spiritual sense to recognize a true prophet. Today, we call that spiritual sense “sensus fidei” or “sensus fidelium” (sense of the faithful). We received this when we were baptized which Saint Paul reminds us in the Second Reading: “Think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).
In other words, to have spiritual sense is to lead a holy life. With the Holy Spirit in his life, a holy person can easily connect with another holy person. They automatically connect. No need for any password. And, today’s Gospel provides the signals that point to “a holy man of God”:
1. PREFERENTIAL LOVE FOR JESUS. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37).
2. LIFE OF SACRIFICE. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38).
3. TOTAL SELF-GIVING FOR JESUS. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:39).
A holy person could sense whether a bishop, a pastor, a deacon, a lay minister, a catechist is a true messenger of God. He can tell whether he is a true prophet, and not a political puppet. He welcomes the “holy man of God” because he could sense that he loves Jesus more than his family, carries his cross, and offers his whole life to God.