Well over 20 years ago,

I was probably ordained about 10 years,

And I took an extended vacation, a month-long vacation.

And I traveled with a friend of mine who was an English teacher,

A wonderful guy,

And we went to Italy, and the one place

He really wanted to go to was northern Africa.

Because his father had fought in World War II,

And there was an enormous cemetery in Tunisia –

In northern Africa,

And it was really important for him to see that.

It was a great experience and talk about, you know,

Being in Tunisia, northern Africa, all new for me.

Well, we’re in Tunisia, and he wasn’t feeling well.

Frank was his name,

And not far from where we were staying at the hotel,

There was a city on the mountain called Citi Busaid,

And in the worst way I wanted to go up there,

It was an intriguing place I had heard,

And Frank wasn’t up for the journey,

So I took a cab and went up to Citi Busaid,

And it was just magnificent, all the white painted

Stucco buildings with the blue doors,

And sitting outside and drinking mint tea with a lot of sugar.

Fascinating, a whole nother world.

And the taxi driver who drove me up the mountain

Said he would stay around and make sure

That I got back to the hotel all right,

Which was gracious and kind.

I wasn’t sure how to make, or what to make,

Of that kind of hospitality.

And sure enough, he did wait for me.

In driving me down back to the hotel, he said,

“what are you doing for dinner tonight?”

I said, “well, I don’t know.” He said, “you come,

You join my family. My wife will cook,

And I have two daughters.”

Again, we’re not used to that,

And particularly with strangers in a strange country,

But there was something about him that I trusted implicitly.

And so I accepted that gracious invitation of hospitality.

Hospitality that we hear about in the Middle East,

And I had a wonderful dinner with him and with his family,

And when the meal was over, he drove me back to the hotel.

Hospitality.

Being people of hospitality. How important that is.

Welcoming the stranger.

Making all those feel comfortable.

Reminding us through gracious hospitality

That we really do all belong to the Family of God.

That we really are sisters and brothers to one another.

We look at the world sometimes, and it’s a difficult concept,

But it’s true. You and I, we all were born

And raised in the image and the likeness of God,

And we are called to be brothers and sisters to one another.

I was talking to a priest friend of mine the other day,

And for his first Mass in his homily,

It was on the day back in 1985

When they had the Hands Across America.

What an image.

Brothers and sisters to one another,

Not just here in America, but in the world.

It’s an ideal,

It’s a dream that we try to live up to.