Loving as Jesus Loved

The main objective for followers of Christ is to become — well … more Christlike. How can we determine whether we are achieving that goal? We may be tempted to tick off things we’ve done, such as the number of times we’ve attended Mass, donated to humanitarian causes, or read spiritual books. However, Abbot Dan Nobles, OSB, has a different criterion. As he says in his blog, “…as we are transformed into the likeness of Christ, we become hospitable.”

Artwork by Ade Bethune

Jesus taught and healed and ate with others indiscriminately, because his mission was to reveal God’s love for everyone. Did he call out hypocrites and cheats and those who acted unjustly? Yes, but he also dialogued with them, engaged them through parables, and dined with them — because if his Father loved them, he was called to love them too.

Abbot Nobles further notes that the willingness to be hospitable, even when it’s tedious or inconvenient, “is the fruit of a transformed heart that first and foremost is set on being with God.” If we want to be one with God, as Jesus was, we need to be hospitable to those whom God loves (that is, everyone), as Jesus did.

Jesus went so far as to say that whatsoever we do to strangers, the hungry, the sick, and prisoners, we do to him. By extension, as Abbot Nobles says, “If I see others as Christ, then my time spend with them is merely time spent with him.”

Seeing others as Christ doesn’t come easily to most of us. However, when we attempt to put on the mind and heart of Christ by intentionally practicing hospitality to the point that it becomes instinctual, we will not only see him but, as he promised, we will live in him and he in us. As the disciples on the road to Emmaus discovered, the key to this transformation is to offer hospitality.