In Cameroon, where I was born and raised, hospitality is an integral part of the culture, as it is in most parts of Africa. We are always ready to receive guests from near and far, familiar and unexpected. This dimension of the culture is accentuated during Christmas celebrations. I remember my mom cooking large portions of meals and baking several cakes for family, friends, the parish community, and visitors. Every year, my siblings and I helped her knead, cut, shape, and fry dough into chinchin, a crunchy fried West African snack. We never knew who would knock on the door but we were expectant and ready.
In many ways, my Christmases in the convent have been like those at home. The vocation of the Daughters of St. Paul has a missionary character. This is reflected in our prayer, communications apostolate, and even ordinary tasks like holiday cooking, baking, and gift-giving. Our family extends beyond the community. I often marvel at the creativity of the Sisters. They know how to say in hundreds of ways to people in various circumstances, “Jesus loves you. He is with you.” Concrete gestures accompany our prayers. Recently, when I stopped by the cubicle where one of the Sisters was gift-wrapping, I was greeted with a litany of gratitude and prayer intentions for the many people who enrich our lives and mission. Love was oozing out of her heart as she made neat folds on the colorful package with a bold message of Christmas joy. Pauline hospitality is always apostolic, an invitation into the hospitality of Christ.
Hospitality is more than opening our homes and sharing meals and songs. It is a stance of openness, generosity, flexibility, and faith. It is not a precise affair. There are unknowns. It is yielding to the inspiration of the Spirit to welcome Christ in our encounters and activities. And Advent and Christmas are filled with many of these! They can be easily missed when we are too busy planning and preparing and sometimes forgetting that, most importantly, we are invited to open ourselves to receive.
God showed hospitality to us long before we learned to weave such love into our cultural fabric. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Christ welcomed us first into his beautiful creation and stupendous plan of salvation. His love is the source of our creative and courageous love. The open arms of the Infant embrace all the aspects of our lives, welcoming us and our realities and giving us the light to see the sacredness of our imperfect lives. Many experience Christmas as a juxtaposition of light and darkness, new life and grief, faith and fear. In all these, Emmanuel! God is with us.
A Christmas Eve Mass brought home to me the hospitality of God in a new way. There I was, with my community and a few parishioners, in a church in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was serving as a missionary. At the beginning of Mass, to our surprise, Father announced with a smile that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were down with Covid and could not join the procession of the Holy Family before the Mass. Yes, the family that was chosen to represent the Holy Family, like many others, was not spared illness. I thought, “Wow! Things are this bad!” I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Then I realized that if the first Christmas happened during a pandemic, God would probably not have shielded himself but would have submitted to the same conditions as everyone else. God embraces our nature and reality. The Incarnation is a profound mystery! The love of God is broad and beautiful! This is the Good News we celebrate during Christmas and every day.
In African culture, the best hosts are generous and humble. They know that, as a Zulu proverb says, “A home is a home if it is visited.” The best hosts have the wisdom to recognize that they are always guests in the presence of others and are ready to receive, listen, and accept hospitality. This is excellent training for Christmas when we both welcome the Christ Child and are welcomed by him.
