By Mgr John Devine OBE

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Returning from a ten-year absence on the Isle of Man, I’m reconnecting with the ecumenical and interfaith scene in Liverpool. Today I joined a group of Muslim, Jewish and Christian members in a sharing of our sacred texts. 

We began with a passage from the Book of Genesis in which Abraham and Sarah give hospitality to three strangers. There followed a discussion about the centrality of hospitality in the worship and culture of Muslims and Jews and even Christians (though tea and biscuits are no match for the more lavish hospitality of Jewish and Muslim gatherings). 

We next considered the account from Luke’s Gospel when two disciples press a stranger to stay and eat with them at the end of the road to Emmaus. It was only in the ‘breaking of bread’ that they recognised Jesus in the stranger who had accompanied them on the road. 

The final passage we looked at was taken from the Qur’an, the Muslim sacred scripture. The prophet Mohammed and his followers flee persecution and seek refuge in Medina. They are welcomed with open arms. Their hosts offer these immigrants shared ownership of their land and produce and, in time, recognise Mohammed as their leader. Our discussion flowed into consideration of the current immigration crisis in Europe and North America. We agreed that given our shared belief in the centrality of hospitality to strangers, our faith communities must unite in challenging the xenophobia of populist leaders who pander to our basest tribal instincts and encourage us to turn against each other.

 

Yet hospitality is embedded in our secular society. We speak of hospitals and hospices where the stranger is not only fed but healed and nursed - as was the case with the Good Samaritan. Jews, Christians and Muslims are known as the three Abrahamic faiths. 

The First Eucharistic Prayer in the Mass refers to Abraham as “our father in faith”. I left behind in the Isle of Man a reproduction of a painting of Abraham by the German priest-artist Sieger Köder. It depicts Abraham at prayer looking up to the starlit heavens. He was the father of many nations. Each of us is represented by one of those billions of stars. I’ve recently acquired another copy of that picture. It hangs in the living room of my new home.