Sunday 20 July 2025
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Genesis 18:1-10. The just will live in the presence of the Lord – Ps 14(15):2-5. Colossians 1:24-28. Luke 10:38-42.
Be generously attentive
The desert, the hottest part of the day. Three men appear. Strangers, exposed to the elements. Abraham recognises these three as the Lord. In the vulnerable strangers, he sees God. His reception is abundantly generous. He bows to them, fetches water, has Sarah make bread and his servant prepare a calf. Abraham offers us a model for welcoming the stranger, recognising the sacred presence in those who come among us in vulnerability.
Martha’s busyness when Jesus visits might be equated to Abraham’s hospitality at Mamre, except that we are told in her busyness, Martha is ‘distracted’. Instead, it is Mary’s attentiveness to Jesus, who is God-with-us, which is to be our model in today’s Gospel Reading. The hospitality we owe to God present in the stranger, the outcast, the marginalised and poor will vary by context. However it is to be expressed, we are called today to be generously attentive.
Email this Print This Page
