David L. Wolfe

I love to read, not everything, but a wide range of thoughts from a wide range of people. I enjoy learning and I am always challenged, whether I am reading ancient Hindu writings, Holy Scriptures three thousand years old, or a contemporary Protestant thinker. In the following case, I was reading a very gifted and thoughtful writer, a Roman Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen. I had no idea that when I purchased the book that he would be speaking on hospitality. But he has some powerful thoughts that must challenge us to our core.

This book, The Wounded Healer, sub-titled Ministry in Contemporary Society, caught my eye because I am interested in ministry. In fact, my whole family destiny is wrapped up in ministry: making Truth real and practical in our culture. I knew of my own woundedness and the grace that brought substantial healing. I recognized my own opportunities to share my comfort with those still on the road of restoration. But Henri surprisingly took me where my heart already was, that is, to hospitality. Ministry is hospitality, and hospitality is ministry.

I have felt for some time that all of us are wounded, perhaps some to greater degree than others, but all of us are wounded, nevertheless. I also knew that the grace of Christ was real and precious to address these wounds. My generational wounds were adultery, selfishness, and racism; I readily brought additional wounds of selfishness, pride, and arrogance. These wounds oftentimes left me incapacitated, or inept, to serve over the years, but I was determined to realize God's mercy and grace towards me. I must be healed and I must serve (minister) from a framework of being restored. This healing process is for a life-time; no one "arrives" this side of heaven.

Let this first lesson on hospitality, and especially the following words, encourage you to continue on your own healing, so that you, too, can minister to others in need. There is comfort for you, and as you receive comfort, you will be able to comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).

How does healing take place? Many words, such as care and compassion, understanding and forgiveness, fellowship and community, have been used for the healing task of the Christian minister. I like to use the word hospitality, not only because it has such deep roots in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but also, and primarily, because it gives us more insight into the nature of response to the human condition of loneliness. Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes closed-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.

But it has become very difficult for us today to fully understand the implications of hospitality. Like the Semitic nomads, we live in a desert with many lonely travelers who are looking for a moment of peace, for a fresh drink and for a sign of encouragement so that they can continue their mysterious search for freedom.

What does hospitality as a healing require? It requires first of all that the host feel at home in his own house, and secondly that he create a free and fearless place for the unexpected visitor. Therefore, hospitality embraces two concepts: concentration and community.

(See Henri J. M. Nouwen: The Wounded Healer, Image Books Doubleday, New York, 1972, pp. 88, 89)