SCRIPTURE READINGS 
Thirteenth Sunday, June 28, 2026 

Biblical Readings Online Here 
(Year A in the three-year cycle of readings)  

Most of us have had the experience of standing at the door of a house we never visited before and whose inhabitants we do not know, and knocking. An understandable moment of anxiety ensues. Will the person coming to the door welcome us or angrily shut the door? The person coming to the door will let us know. Such moments might bring home to us the significance of hospitality. Will people we do not know welcome us or dismiss us?

Hospitality is important in the Bible, beautifully illustrated by the idyllic scene of Abraham’s servant seeking a wife for Isaac, “As [Rebekah] came up, the servant ran toward her and said, ‘Please give me a sip of water from your jug.’ ‘Drink, sir,’ she replied . . . When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw water for your camels, too’” (Genesis 24:15-9). Rebekah’s trustful welcome assured the servant that she was the right one.

Another example is the first reading, the wealthy woman’s welcome into her house of the prophet Elisha. Still another is Jesus’s request that the messengers he sends be welcomed. The scenes illustrate the definition of hospitality as “generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests.” It was especially prized in biblical times when protection of strangers was not reinforced by law. Abraham was renowned for his hospitality, a wise attitude toward the inhabitants of Canaan when he was a mere a resident alien.

Hospitality is a praiseworthy virtue in Jewish and Christian tradition. Think of the wealthy woman’s welcome of Elisha in today’s first reading and Jesus’s request that his emissaries be respected. Both welcomes yield a rich reward. But today’s reading show something even more in practicing the virtue of hospitality. There is something transcendent and divine when the welcome is accepted. The woman who receives Elisha into her house receives a son. And anyone who receives a prophet sent by Jesus receives the reward of a prophet, eternal life. Practicing hospitality, welcoming others, can lift people out of concerns about themselves and their immediate family to a receptiveness that enriches their lives and broadens their horizons.

Richard Clifford, S.J., has taught biblical studies for 55 years, most recently at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College, and has written many scholarly and popular books and articles.