Becoming a Person of WelcomeSample

The Vulnerability of Hospitality

Hospitality often includes vulnerability. Putting oneself out there and offering gifts or generosity to be received makes one open to rejection or criticism. Perhaps that is why we often strive to perfect hospitality and ensure everything is just so.

Even as Jesus was welcoming to others, Jesus was first vulnerable. He was vulnerable to the welcome of Mary’s womb and the world around her. He was vulnerable to the people who would listen to what he had to offer. He was vulnerable to being misunderstood and rejected. As he was vulnerable, he found friends along the way. Men and women would walk with him, even if some did abandon him.

When we choose to love and welcome, we are also vulnerable. Some of us have been criticized and rejected. We have been alone in the pain.

Today’s Scripture reading invites us to see the vulnerability of Jesus’s birth and those who came around him to care for and protect him. From the beginning, he was not alone.

And Jesus provides for us both solidarity, knowing what it is like, and care, walking with us. He also shows us the way of welcome, which includes vulnerability and friendship, and that we are not alone.

How are you vulnerable to others as you look to welcome and serve them?

Do you have protectors or allies that can come alongside you? Who are they?