Hospitality to Strangers
Welcoming strangers reflects God's welcome and may encounter angels unaware.
Scripture commands, 'Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.' Abraham's hospitality to three strangers proved to be hospitality to divine messengers. This teaching transcends cultural boundaries, welcoming the foreigner and outsider. In the ancient world, hospitality was essential for travelers' survival; in the church, it became a defining mark of Christian community. Benedict made it a rule around AD 530: every guest is to be received as Christ himself (Rule, ch. 53).
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Christine Pohl's 'Making Room' recovers hospitality as a central Christian practice that creates space for the stranger and marginalized.
Epistle to the Hebrews