Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Thursday, December 15, 2022

WELCOME

She's the first person to smile at me today.

The first to make me feel wanted. Understood.

I blink back tears. It's unknown how many students' lives librarians have saved

by welcoming loners at lunch.”

Lisa Fipps, Starfish

 

Tolerance is a poor substitute for embrace.”

Jamie Arpin-Ricci

 

Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. . . . The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adore the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.

          Henri Nouwen

__________________________________________

 

ah, wonderful welcoming God

ah, Spirit of love which embraces

 

you came

“Into this world, this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for [you] at all” you came uninvited (Merton)

 

there was no room for you in the minds and hearts of those

who looked at Mary scandalously, sending her to the hills for safety

 

there was no room at the inn

there was no room for you in the Synagogue at Nazareth

no room in the temple in Jerusalem

no room in the world

 

you were welcome, not welcome

greeted and judged, weighed and measured

you were not embraced

not welcome to be who you were

 

and yet you welcomed, all

at your birth there were welcome, shepherds

the lowest of the low

there were magi, heretic aliens from afar

you invited the most common of the common to be your disciples

fishermen, strong of scent

 

you welcomed Jews

and Romans

shady women, and shady men

the rich, the poor

the healthy, the ill

the sane and the insane

saint and sinner

religious and none

 

you welcomed them into your presence

a sketchy lot

 

welcome!

 

and that is when it all began

 

you drove no one from your presence

you cast no one out

there was hope for change, I think

that greed would turn to generosity

that a lust for power would turn to humility

 

but there were no tests of faith

no demands for perfection

no loaded expectations

only welcome, and the offer of love

 

people came to you just as they were

and they were welcomed just as they were

and that radical welcome

set them free

 

to hear and see

to open their minds and hearts

to become Sacred children

 

imperfect still

struggling still

but new

 

we are called to welcome

to welcome all

not to parse our hospitality based upon who they are

not to burden with the expectation of change

the demand that they become who and what we want them to be

but to welcome, unconditionally

 

so that people, welcomed, loved, safe and free

can

sing their own songs,

speak their own languages,

dance their own dances;

love whom they love

or leave to go their own way, undamaged, unjudged

 

we are to welcome

so that people can find and discover and accept themselves

and know what it means to be truly loved

and knowing love

love and welcome others

in return

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