Luke 14:13-14 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Hospitality is about being welcomed as you are. It’s about being shown kindness and being drawn into a circle of love. If it were about building up credit, showing off, or putting others down, it wouldn’t be hospitality.
Pastor Andre and Magda Trocme were the pastoral couple in an isolated Protestant area of rural France, at Le Chambon. From early on, they worked with local villages and congregations to shelter Jews, and either help them get to safety in Switzerland, or find a new life among them. Children whose parents had been sent to concentration camps were given new names, enrolled in schools, and boarded with local families.
Whenever suspicious pro-Nazi authorities inspected, no locals ever betrayed anyone. When 4 Jewish young men were arrested, Andre’s 2nd cousin Daniel, who was responsible for them, insisted on being arrested. Later that would cost him his life. When Andre was arrested, he refused to sign any agreements about supporting the local authorities. He was released after 4 weeks, and went into hiding, but the work continued until the end of the war.
That community saved at least 2,000 Jewish adults and children. In the Yad Vasehm Holocaust Memorial centre in Jerusalem, Andre and Magda Trocme are named as ‘Righteous Gentiles’. I saw their photo and a brief description there 2 years ago.
That community practised simple hospitality, shown to fellow humans who were in great danger. It was a hospitality that reached across race and faith lines, simply concerned with protecting other humans.
For reflection: When was a time you experienced unexpected or wonderful hospitality? What does it mean to you now, as you recall that memory?
