Everyone is Welcome

I had, what I consider to be the defining moment of my understanding of my religious self in college. You can argue that it wasn't a religious moment, but you would miss the point.

Here is what happened. There was a friend of a friend that needed a place to stay.  I don't remember why he did, but it was mid-semester and we had an extra space. It wasn't a room, but it was private enough, and it was just hosting my stuff.  So, I presented it to the group.  I thought this was a simple request: "there is a guy who needs to crash with us for 9weeks." But this request was met with strong resistance.  Questions like: "how will we split the bills?" Or "what about my closet? Where will it go?" I just wasn't prepared.

And then this moment hit me.  Someone needed a space, and I opened my house without question. I completely and totally felt that this was a direct result of my religious upbringing.  To oversimplify it:  he could have been Jesus. He needed a place.  It was a weird moment for me, I am typically the last person to get into a conversation about religion.  I don't even understand my own spirituality fully.  But, this moment defined for me what I think the church (for me, the Catholic Church) should be about. Social Justice.  I get that.  I fully embrace that.

This thread continues throughout my life.  We have opened our home for as long as 7months and as short as an overnight.  We are on our fourth exchange student, and even three visiting Chinese professors.  As we talk about bedrooms, and where people should sleep in the house, we will continue to resist giving up any flexibility to share our home.

As we go into these events, looking at the cleaning, preparation and logistics involved in hosting an exchange student, the natural question is: Why? Why go through this? What do you get? As I sat at the table drinking my Miso soup this morning, I was warmed by the diversity of my group. All of the preparation stress fell away.

And then, R brought it home for me: "Did you know that love and hugs are spoken in all languages? French, Japanese, English: they all speak LOVE!"
And J, shouting one of her first 10 words: "...eeeeeSAkiiiiii" and reached up to be held by her newest friend.

Everyone is welcome at our house. You give more to us then we could ever offer to you.