Welome one and all.

There are many reasons why people stop coming to Church. Maybe they have had a bad experience in the past or maybe it is something that they did when they were young but don't feel the need to come anymore. Maybe they have just stoped believing in God. I think though that a lot of people have stoped coming because they just do not feel that welcomed. I think that this last reason is why a lot of people have stoped coming. Maybe they were not spoken to when they arrived. They had no idea what was going on and felt lost and all at sea. Maybe they were asked to move because this is their seat. Something that I have experienced myself in a Church where I was celebrating Mass I was asked to move even though the Church was completely empty. The person explaining that they had always sat there for the last 40 years. I have seen a couple who came to the church one week and never saw again and when I asked why when I met them in town they said because someone asked us to move and felt it was their church rather than our Church. So when we might complain that no one comes to the Church maybe we should look at what welcome we give. 

Sadly for many people  when they come to Church they get a sense of unwelcome rather than a sense of welcome and hospitality. It is true to say that the first impressions of a place stick. I was struck the other day by talking to someone who was now attending a different denomination because of the sense of unwelcome and hospitality that they had experienced in their own local catholic church and they were themselves Catholic.  

Jesus says today that we should be open and welcoming to all people. It does not have to be a grand gesture but as Jesus says just by giving a cup of water can be enough. A simple act of kindness a simple act of hospitality can go a long way. This small deed can go along way in someones life. We can feel that we matter and we belong.  A simple good morning or getting to know the people that sit around you. The thing is that it may not be a big thing to us but it is to the person who receives the kindness and hospitality. 

Being a disciple requires a cost. We have to give something of ourselves in our hospitality. This involves sacrifice sometimes coming out of our comfort zones to bring Christ to others. No one said that being a Christian was going to be easy. Like a long distant runner who has to train hard to achieve their goal so to with the Christian to sacrifice as we have discovered is to give something of ourselves to another to take up our cross and help with another burden.  The other aspect to this is that when we welcome the stranger when we make someone a cup of tea who needs it when we are making some one welcome we are welcoming Christ himself for we are all born in the image and likeness of God.

But the Christian hospitality does not stop at the Church door. It must have an impact on our lives outside in the world. For some people it may be easy to show the gift of hospitality in the Church but its when we are out. Offering a seat on the bus going the extra mile to visit someone in hospital buying a sandwich for a homeless person. 

The basics of the Christian life are one of welcome we follow the example of Jesus we embrace the stranger and the poor the weak and the lonely for in doing so we a re welcoming him.  We are being Christ to others. 

So this Christian hospitality starts with us we need to think about those who are around us and be people of welcome not just in the Church but also in the places where we live and work. A simple test would be. So I know the people who sit around me at Mass? Do I welcome a new person when they arrive at Church? And this sense of welcome does it have an impact on my life after Sunday? Do I foster a spirit of welcome to all people.