Learning hospitality - the African way

Monday, January 4, 2016

Brother Richard DeMaria

BLOGGER PROFILE

Constitution 25 of the 1996 Constitutions of the Christian Brothers indicates that our primary means of evangelization is community. Just stop and think what this is saying: that the main way in which we brothers spread the Gospel is through our practice of community. By welcoming others to participate in our community life, we are sharing the Gospel values. 

Among the calls that were extended to the Christian Brothers by the General Chapter of 2013 that took place in Nairobi, Kenya, was the call to welcome as companions all those inspired by the charism of our founder, Blessed Edmund Rice. It was most appropriate that this call would emerge from the Nairobi chapter, given the importance of relationship and hospitality in African traditions.

One way that our community responds to this call is through “common hospitality.” But what is common for Africans is not common for me. Living in Africa for five years has given me a whole new understanding of the demands of hospitality. I find myself reluctant to put off planned work when guests arrive and annoyed by the noise involved with having many guests (some for months) in the house.

The following personal experience illustrates the importance of hospitality in Africa:

In Green Point novitiate, one of the novices suddenly disappeared from a group work project. I found him in the community room entertaining people while we were struggling to cover his responsibilities in the work project. 

I asked him about this later. To my surprise, he told me that he had not met these people before. They were friends of friends who had appeared at the novitiate without any advance notice. 

“Couldn’t you,” I asked, “have explained to them that you were supposed to be working with your brothers and you would like to make a date for a longer visit?” This seemed to me a reasonable suggestion.  

He told me that to do this would have been impossible (!) because it would have been inhospitable.

I didn’t understand his position at the time, but now, having taken courses on African traditions, I do. It would be unthinkable for an African not to put everything aside and entertain these unexpected visitors.

I am only slowly learning to practice hospitality as an African would. If I am in the middle of a project, and I encounter a guest in the community room, my inclination is to say hello and return to my task. I am now learning to sit with the guest, whom I may never have met before, and converse.

My experience has been that these unplanned visits often have been enriching and joyful. I am learning to take seriously that every visit can be a privileged moment of evangelization — of the guest or of me. I am beginning to learn this, but have a long way to go.

In a press conference returning from Africa, Pope Francis said: “But for me, Africa was a surprise. I thought, God surprises us, but even Africa surprises us… They have a very great sense of welcome. I saw in the three nations that they had this sense of welcome because they were happy to feel visited.”