Xenia3.0 Recreating Hospitality in a Diverse World Hospitality Is Humanity

In our current environment, where hostility appears to be gaining ground over hospitality, even within some church and theological settings, the practice of hospitality constitutes a veritable act of resistance.

Jesus-style resistance. A hospitality that broke the barriers of his time: pure/impure…In a world that sometimes appears to be broken and falling apart, the Christian is called to build bridges over the limits of the legal-illegal, of the pure-impure, and of inclusion-exclusion, because hospitality has a great foundation in celebration and Jesus invites to his table those whom society rejects or demonizes ".

A return to the origins of our hospitality is necessary, a hospitality as old as humanity itself, as witnessed by the practice of xenía. Hospitality runs through our biblical tradition and much of the history of the Church.

Because they are countercultural, Communities of Hospitality constitute authentic spaces of resistance and foresee the Kingdom when they invite everyone to sit together at the same table, to share what unites us as well as our differences. In short, Communities of Hospitality are an invitation to be witnesses of hope.

Nowadays, the practice of hospitality poses serious questions regarding the building of identity, a formational element in the vital development of individuals and groups of people (Ares, 2017a). These issues are manifested in everyday life, when we coexist. Dynamics in which personal and collective identity processes are woven, some more static and others more dynamic.

Our life is a continuous coming and going, in which we travel and crisscross many roads. Diversity is one of the great riches that hospitality brings to mind. A great variety of cultures, accents, religions, foods, interpretations of reality, etc. A diversity that, in turn, poses a challenge to coexistence, to the creation of identity and to the construction of a pluralistic and open citizenship.

When asked “Can we live together?”, we often move between the two extremes of those who see diversity as a threat - the only solution for coexistence being the reinforcement of national identity and borders (hostility) - and those who - in diversity - discover an opportunity for our pluralistic societies, in which the emphasis is on welcoming and integrating, laying the foundations for true social cohesion (hospitality).

"This hospitality is presented as a human and spiritually vital value and connected to the vulnerability of the human being who always requires being welcomed and welcoming the other, who always needs to create inhabitable spaces and leave inhospitable contexts".

The current migratory reality presents an invitation to renew and deepen a theology of migrations. The practice of hospitality within the Social Doctrine of the Church unmasks a rhetoric of hostility, in many cases classist, with nativist language.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages. All of us alike hear them proclaim the wonders of God in our own language! (Acts 2)

With the practice of hospitality, diversity can generate life (Acts 2, 1-13) or it can generate division and hostility (G. 11, 1-9). How to deal with this situation? We cannot continue with old recipes in new times. This is what happened in Babel, generating division and selfishness.

On the other hand, diversity can be lived according to the spirit of Pentecost. A diversity that opens its doors and generates plenty and hope. He found them gathered and the miracle was performed. It is the Holy Spirit who enables the miracle of hospitality, of understanding to occur. People who come from different environments, with different cultures, languages, ... All of them continue to preserve their distinctive characteristics, even as they strive to understand each other.

When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. (Lk 24: 30-33)

Like the Emmaus disciples, many people around the world leave home for many different reasons. The disciples from Emmaus flee – inconsolable and in the midst of a crisis of life and faith -after seeing Jesus murdered. They set out on the road and, there, Jesus encounters them and begins to dialogue with them, attempting to get them to open up, to reinterpret their lives from the perspective of the central event of Easter. But far from beginning to have a new understanding of the resurrection in their lives, they reproach Jesus: But haven’t you heard what has happened? Jesus looks them in the eye, but still they don't recognize him. The journey, for the disciples from Emmaus, as well as for people who migrate - voluntarily or involuntarily - is a true ordeal, due to the complexity and bureaucracy of the legal processes.