Reciprocity or Asymmetry?

Monday, November 3, 2025

Rom 11: 29-36; Lk 14: 12-14

Today’s Gospel highlights some radical insights on Christian hospitality. 

In his teaching, Jesus redefines hospitality by challenging the conventional notion that it is founded on mutual exchange. For Jesus, the conventional type of hospitality is reductive in outlook, as it narrows down hospitality to a mere transactional exercise and not an exercise of communion. For Jesus, what cannot unite humanity by abolishing differences is not inspired by God, and therefore, such self-serving exchanges cannot be named as hospitality by Christians. 

In Jesus’ view, hospitality could be a divine exercise only when it maintains an asymmetry between the host and the guest. The agreement ‘You invite me now, and I will invite you next time’ fails to reflect anything divine as it happens between two capable partners who take turns inviting each other. Hence, what is socially acceptable is not spiritually admirable for Jesus because such exercise ignores those who are economically and socially poor.

The basis for Jesus’ teaching on radical hospitality is the divine-human relationship itself, as it is asymmetrical by nature because the perfect God enters into communion with imperfect humans. In the same way, when we practice hospitality towards someone who cannot repay us, such exercise only imitates divine generosity. God does not bless us so that we can repay Him. Hence, we participate in or reflect divine generosity when we bless others out of the same abundance mindset.

Let us pray that our hospitality may become a spiritual exercise by integrating the divine perspective that Jesus teaches us.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar