Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: “I was a stranger and you took me in” (Mt 25:35). And let due honour be shown to all, especially to those “of the household of the faith” (Gal 6:10) and to wayfarers.

Rule of Benedict Chapter 53

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13: 1

I’ve been trying to briefly lay out some of the advantages that result from a positive answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed – “That they may be one…” In this post I want to make a few final comments and general observations before making a few practical suggestions, in the final post of the series, to help us become part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer.

When we become followers of Jesus we become part of his ‘body’ on earth, the hands the feet, the hearts who are called to represent him on planet earth. Effectively we belong not just to Jesus, we belong to each other as well.

It has been said that the USA and UK are two nations divided by a common language…we use the same words but they can mean something completely different in each culture. The same could be said of Christians, who sometimes understand a word or an idea that seems the same in a completely different way. Disastrous misunderstanding can follow. Only by talking to one another, questioning and clarifying can we break down the barriers that our jargon can create (and of course, this is vital as we try to communicate faith within wider culture too).

Exploring our language and vocabulary may be one important step in dismantling the walls of fear, ignorance and pride that have been built between us, as we seek the many things we have in common as followers of Jesus.

All of us need to concentrate much more on the things that we all have in common as followers of Jesus. When there are differences, we need to honour and respect those…”agreeing to differ” falls far short of a oneness of heart and love for Jesus and one another.

The Celtic Christians recognised that often it is in the stranger, the one who is not like us, that we meet Jesus. There is an ancient Celtic rune of hospitality, collected on the Isle of Eigg by Kenneth Macleod, that makes the point:

I saw a stranger yestereen…..
I put food in the eating place
drink in the drinking place
music in the listening place
and in the sacred name of the Triune
he blessed myself and my house,
my cattle and my dear ones.
And the lark said in her song
Often, often, often goes the Christ in stranger’s guise
Often, often, often goes the Christ in stranger’s guise

In the final paragraph of his powerful book, “The Body Broken”, Robert Benson writes:

We must be willing to cultivate humility along with certainty, to practice tolerance along with devotion, to seek patience along with piety.

We must learn to seek the face of Christ in those who are different as readily as we do in the faces of those who are like us.

We must learn to love one another.

We must learn to love one another…