praxis 6 below

Spiritual Transformation of the I into the 'Thee' . . . Thelma Hall

"A simple ancient fable reveals this artfully, in telling of one seeking the Beloved.  He knocks at his door and hears: 'Who is there?'  He replies, 'It is I.'  The response comes: 'There is no room in here for both of us.'  Despondent, he goes away into the forest and for long months meditates on the words he has heard.  Then he returns and knocks again at the door.  In response to the same question, 'Who is there?'  He replies,  'It is Thee!' - and the door opens to receive him.

The transformation of the 'I' into the 'Thee' in this fable indicates the prospect of a real kind of death.  We begin to realize the seriousness of this imperative when we are able to suspend our defenses and really hear what Jesus is saying, in teaching that to follow him we must 'deny' and 'renounce' ourselves, and even 'hate' and 'lose' our lives, for his sake.  And we begin to sense a strange inner contradiction, in discovering that what we now most long for, we most resist, and even fear.  Instinctively, we try to look past those words of Jesus and go on to more consoling ones."

-Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words

The Lost Art of Welcoming the Stranger - (radical hospitality)

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, "I came as a guest, and you received Me."

Rule of St. Benedict (Chapter 53)

It is so difficult to welcome the stranger in our midst.  A kind of disposition toward suspicion rules supreme in many North American realities.  Most of us don't even know the names of our neighbors let alone their dreams or their needs or their gifts to this world.  But if you have traveled overseas at all - and often it is among the poorest of the world - being welcomed into a home & offered a meal & a cup of tea or water by complete strangers is as natural as breathing.  It seems we have a lot of growing up to do.  And it seems that perhaps if we begin with a simple hello to our next door neighbor this evening - it could be a simple step in a radically renewing direction toward shared living, toward deep trust.