13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2026
Sacred Heart, New Town
Welcome to everyone who has gathered to pray at Sacred Heart this morning. I am going to speak about hospitality but apologise for not accepting your hospitality this morning as I have to go to Glenorchy to celebrate Mass and Confirmation at 10am.
Australians who visit poorer countries are often struck by the extraordinary hospitality they encounter. People with very little somehow possess an abundance of generosity.
Hospitality has always been one of the great virtues of humanity. In the world of the Bible, it was considered sacred. To welcome another person was to welcome the blessing of God.
Jesus himself depended constantly on the kindness of others. He shared meals in the home of Matthew. He sat at table with Simon. He enjoyed the friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. After healing Peter’s mother-in-law, he accepted the hospitality of that household. The Gospel shows us Our Lord who was never distant from ordinary homes and ordinary people.
The early Church inherited that same spirit. Paul and Barnabas travelled from town to town relying upon Christian communities and generous believers. Lydia, whose story we hear in the Acts of the Apostles, opened her home to the missionaries, and became one of the great examples of Christian hospitality.
Today’s first reading presents another beautiful example. The woman of Shunem and her husband recognised Elisha as “a holy man of God”. They did more than offer him a meal. They prepared a room for him. They made space in their lives for God by making space for one of God’s servants. Their generosity was not forgotten.
The Gospel begins in a challenging way. Jesus speaks about loving him above all things and taking up our cross. Those words can sound harsh to modern ears, but for the first Christians they were words of encouragement. Becoming a Christian in the first century could mean losing family ties, friendships, and business connections. Faith was costly. Following Christ was not a private preference but a complete commitment. Jesus was assuring his disciples that nothing given up for his sake would ever be lost.
Then the Gospel turns once more to hospitality. “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me.”
Those words are astonishing. Christ identifies himself with those who come to us. He is present in the stranger, the lonely person, the newcomer at Mass, the elderly neighbour, the refugee, and the person who sits quietly at the back of the church hoping not to be noticed.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom this church is dedicated, is a heart that is always open. The Lord never turns people away. He receives sinners, doubters, the broken-hearted and the weary. His Heart remains full of love for humanity. If we bear his name, then the New Town community should reflect something of that same generosity.
Hospitality is not simply about tea and coffee after Mass, though that is important. It is about recognising Christ in one another. It is about making room in our hearts. It is about ensuring that people find here at Sacred Heart not merely a building, but a home. It is about noticing those who are absent through illness or frailty, caring for those who are struggling, welcoming those who have arrived in Tasmania from distant lands, and honouring the First Peoples of this country whose own traditions place such importance on kinship and belonging.
Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading that through baptism we have been united with Christ. We belong to him. We are called to become another Christ for the world. So, when Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” he is inviting us to see every person through the eyes of faith. We should have our antennas up, always alert to the presence of Christ in those around us.
Perhaps that is why the Letter to the Hebrews offers one of the loveliest pieces of advice in the whole New Testament:
“Never neglect hospitality, for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb 13:2). And without realising it, we sometimes entertain something even greater.
Christ himself has already visited us in the face of the stranger, in the lonely parishioner, in the person sitting beside us at Mass.
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus make our hearts more like his own, so that everyone who crosses the threshold of this church may discover not only a welcoming community, but the living presence of Christ himself.
Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
28 June 2026