hospitality

Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’ ...
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Matt. 25: 34-5, 40

I am living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Whenever I am in the car driving somewhere in the city, I see hungry and thirsty people begging for money near the traffic light; some of them are ill. Naked guys with mental illness walk pass my house. I watch and read criminal being sentenced to prison almost daily. Yet I have to admit, sadly, I have never done anything.

The most I have done is giving little fraction of my money to the beggars. That is closer to nothing than something.

Mother Teresa lived this gospel reading to the letters. She fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, nursed the sick, welcomed the dying to die on her lap.

Should I do the same? Could I? Or would I?

I have heard and read this gospel reading a lot of times, but I have never give it enough importance to be done in my life. I find it difficult, mostly because I have a lot of fears.

Welcoming a stranger to the house is close to impossible to be done. I have watched enough real-life crime to be able to do that. Or maybe I am not poor enough to do that (blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven).

But I should be able to do the rest. Yeah, I could do them.

And of course, I would.