The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization in early 2020. [1] The suspending or limiting of activities not only brought panic and anger, but also highlighted the sense of loneliness and alienation that many people felt.
Catholic theologian and priest Henri Nouwen describes this isolation and alienation as a “crying loneliness” arising with respect to our relationships to ourselves, to others, and with God. [2] The Christian response to this epidemic of loneliness must consider three biblical principles: human flourishing, hospitality, and welcome.
Human Flourishing
Theologian Miroslav Volf suggests that the vision of “the flourishing life” [3] can be discerned through the metaphor of the kingdom of God. Romans 14:17 gives us a good picture of the essence of human flourishing: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Three aspects of the verse help us understand the flourishing life: [4]
- Righteousness: Life Well Lived. Volf interprets righteousness as being faithful to God’s covenant, which according to Paul means living in obedience to the law of love (Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14).
- Peace: Life Going Well. What enables us to live a flourishing life is peace. This refers both to an inward sense of peace and right relationships with God, with others, and with creation.
- Joy: Life Feeling as It Should. The distinctive feature of flourishing is joy, which comes from being in the presence of God and is experienced in the presence of others.
Hospitality
The practice of hospitality was an integral part of the life of the early church. [5] Hebrews 13:2 was an instruction to the early church regarding the practice. The first part is “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers….” The Greek word here for hospitality is philoxenia. It is made up of two words: phileo, the love of a brother or sister, and xenos, the stranger or foreigner. Putting the two together, hospitality means loving strangers and foreigners as our brothers and sisters.
The second part of Hebrews 13:2 gives the reason: “for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Welcome
Hospitality simply involves welcoming guests and making them feel at home. It means accepting “with pleasure the presence” [6] of our guests. Accepting someone with pleasure requires an attitude that comes from the heart. We are genuinely pleased with their presence and seek to honour them.
According to Christian ethicist and author Christine Pohl, there are two main contexts for practising hospitality: [7]
- Welcoming “those with whom we already have some established bonds and significant common ground. Hospitality builds and reinforces relationships among family, friends and acquaintances. It is one of the pleasures of ordinary life.
- Welcoming “those who are disconnected from basic relationships that give persons a secure place in the world. The most vulnerable strangers are detached from family, community, church, work, and polity.”
The early church was particularly concerned with the second, believing that when they welcomed the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned, they were welcoming the Lord Himself. They were motivated by the story of the great judgement told by Jesus in Matthew 25:31–40. Pohl points out, “Throughout the entire tradition [of Christian hospitality], the words of Matthew 25:31–40 and Luke 14:12–14 are recalled in extending the definition and the reach of hospitality. By suggesting not only that God welcomes the needy and disadvantaged, but that God is welcomed in these people, the passages press Christians to include those most likely to be overlooked.” [8]
Excerpted and adapted from Ivan Tan, Hospitality & Growing the Church (Singapore, 2023), 2–10.
_____________
[1] “WHO Director-General’s Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020”, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020
[2] Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (London: Fount Paperbacks, 1998; first published by Doubleday in 1975), XIX.
[3] Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun, For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2019), 150.
[4] Volf and Croasmun, For the Life of the World, 164–185.
[5] By early church, I mean “the Christian church in the centuries immediately following Christ’s death.” Collins Dictionary, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/the-early-church
[6] “Welcome.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welcome
[7] Christine Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 13.
[8] Pohl, Making Room, 23.