When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chuuk back in the mid 70’s every few feet someone would call out to me to come and join them. “Come, eat!” While it served as a greeting, it also expressed a basic hospitality that was part of the culture. The stranger was welcome. Since then I’ve found such hospitality a basic virtue of most islanders.
In ancient times hospitality was a virtue that could mean the difference between life and death. It would take a long time to get from one place to another, as the most common form of transportation was walking along the paths and roads. Some people might have horse drawn vehicles, but they were still very slow compared to contemporary cars or airplanes.
Travelers were easy prey for bandits, as they usually carried money or other valuables with which to purchase food, supplies and lodging. The host who offered hospitality promised to provide for the shelter, protection and food of the guest. This was a serious commitment on the part of the host. Thus, the story of Abraham hosting the three angels in the Book of Genesis reminds us that hospitality has a divine aspect as well, since you could be hosting God. This type of story is found not only in Hebrew Scriptures but in the sacred stories of many cultures.
Hospitality is one of the core values of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan. It still honors the traditional island values. However, it is a core value not only because it is part of island tradition but because it has relevance to the contemporary situation. The Mariana Islands are a crossroads for people of many traditions and ethnicities. Not only has the Marianas become home for Chamorros, Carolinians and Micronesians from around the region but “outsiders” now call the Marianas home; Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos, Bangladesh, even some Statesiders.
While I have argued in the past that there is a need to protect the indigenous identity and culture of the Mariana Islands, this doesn’t eliminate the importance of hospitality towards all those who are not indigenous to the Mariana Islands. Such hospitality is open to the stranger, considerate of the visitor’s needs, respectful of the visitor’s cultural values and concerned with the physical well-being of the visitor; whether the visitor is a tourist or a guest worker.
Hospitality also places responsibilities on the guest. The guest must be respectful of his or her host and the limits of their resources, not taking advantage of them. The guest should contribute to the household to the extent to which he is able through resources, finances or labor. If the host is sworn to protect the guest, the guest also has a responsibility to help protest the host as well. The guest should be honest with the host, so that the host knows the extent of the responsibility he or she is taking on by offering the guest hospitality.
Hospitality is not just a cultural or civic virtue but is a moral and spiritual value as well. It is an act of charity toward another and an expression of the inherent value with which you regard the other person. In recent years the war in Syria has put a strain on the Western nations of the world with a vast movement of refugees from war-torn areas to areas of relative peace and safety. The rapid, large movement of people from one place to another is disruptive, as it is difficult to provide the resources and security to facilitate such movement. In addition, such a large movement of people places a great strain on the receiving communities. Some nations have demonstrated hospitality and welcomed the refugees in a humanitarian frame of mind, while other nations have lacked hospitality and reacted in fear.
Pope Francis consistently reminds all nations and people that Christ calls us to be merciful toward those in need. Jesus was a refugee as a small child fleeing the wrath of Herod. Those who turn their backs today on the refugee and other strangers among us are turning their backs to Christ (Matthew 25). As a core value of the pastoral plan, hospitality reminds us to reflect on how we treat those who are different from us. In any action we take as a church, parish or faith community we must do our best to make room for the stranger and to respect their presence among us. We don’t need to abandon our culture and who we are, but we do need to be open to them and to be hospitable.