It was finally time to go down and visit Jesucita. Her husband arrived, took off his straw vaquero hat, shook our hands, and very formally and graciously invited us to sit down and have a cup of coffee with him. He was an iron-back man, not tall, but erect and strong; his hands were thick and solid as oak burls. We learned that he was a horse-breaker from the interior of Mexico, a real cowboy who took pride in his talents ... It was a lovely moment. The weak coffee, the formal and serious cowboy, the children, and Jesucita, hovering over us. She broke a small loaf of sweet bread into pieces and made us eat. It was also a fearsome moment -- the water that went into making the coffee was surely polluted, runoff from the miasma above. A great deal of disease infested the area from the constant flooding and the scattered bodies of dead animals. To refuse their hospitality would have been the ultimate insult, yet to eat and drink put us at risk. Von had the grim set in his lips that said, Here we go again, and with a glance at us, he took a sip. We drank. ‘-Ah’ We exulted. ‘Delicioso!’ Jesucita beamed. The cowboy nodded gravely, dipped his bit of sweet bread in his cup, and toasted us with it." Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border by Luis Alberto Urrea Hospitality and Liberation Psychology Ignacio Martín Baro, one of the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador and pioneer in the field of Liberation Psychology urges us to leave the "offices" where we practice. He writes in "Towards a Psychology of Liberation": What is needed is for our most basic assumptions in psychological thought to be revised from the bottom up. But this revision cannot be made from our offices; it has to come from a praxis that is committed to the poor. MENTAL MODEL When we leave our wards and our offices to participate in liberating service, we carry with us Mental Models of office- or clinic-based service. Many of us were trained in a distorted version of the Medical Model. So our first instinct is to transport a HOSPITAL MODEL of service. In the distorted version of the Medical Model, the primary relationship is a unilateral one between STAFF and PATIENT. The terms used to describe models of mental-health service include: INPATIENT; PARTIAL HOSPITALIZATION; OUTPATIENT. The HOSPITALITY MODEL, on the other hand, is a reciprocal relationship between GUEST and HOST. The Hospitality Model can be best translated in Latin Cultures. In Latin, the word "Hospes", from which comes our word "Hospitality", means both guest and host. So, easily from the lips comes the promise to a friend or even an associate: "Mi Casa Es Su Casa." ("My House is Your House"). A NEW INTERVENTION STYLE The word "Therapy" comes from the Greek "Theraps", meaning "to serve". The Hospitality Model of Liberating Service includes changes in dynamics: Hospitality (opening doors/entering someone else's domain) is an act of shared vulnerability. The Hospitality Model fosters Intimacy and Reciprocity. The Hospitality Model evens out the sense of differential power. There is a big difference between power and control. In Spanish, the noun for power is "Poder". Used as a verb, "Poder" means "to be able". Control, on the other hand, is an illusion maintained by the assumptions one makes based on role and environment. The Hospitality model never holds control; it holds opportunities to broaden horizons and make use of resources. The hospitality model requires us to balance our role as a professional and as a guest. As guest, we respect the authority that exists in the home. We cannot demand the family change its whole home life to accomodate our delimited time with a them. As a professional, we may tactfully take the lead in the nature and process of the interaction. Mainly, we facilitate search for a common ground to build a sense of reciprocity and shared purpose. The "toolbox" for the hospitality model has different components. "Coffee drinking" may be a way to ritualize the therapeutic event. Sharing a picture album provides us with landmarks of events that are positive and evoke stories of potential strengths. The wisdom of elders is acknowledged and respected. In the hospitality model, professional boundaries need to include considerations of the culture. Asking about cultural differences shows interest, and gives people the opportunity to talk and feel respected. In Latino families, there will be no intervention unless you pay attention to the social niceties. SCRIPTURE AND HOSPITALITY The Gospel of Luke includes a strong endorsement of a ministry of liberation (4:14-21). Jesus models the ministry of Liberation. Throughout the Gospel, Luke sets Jesus off on a journey to Jerusalem, spreading the Good News of Liberation in word, in relationship, and in action. When the Christ shares the Beatitudes with his disciples in the Gospel of Luke, it is different from Sermon on the Mount (5:3-12). Matthew was written to convince the Jews; consequently, Jesus preached the Beatitudes from a mountain, as a New Moses bringing a New Law down from the New Sinai. Luke, significantly, takes Jesus down from the mountain and puts him on a "level place". Not only does the "level ground" give access for entire crowd to Jesus, but also it puts Jesus at the same plane with the oppressed. A person stands above others to lord it over them or to insulate themselves from their poverty or hunger. A Minister of Liberation establishes parity with those with whom he or she ministers. Attention to the episodes where hospitality occurs is a characteristic of the evangelist of liberation. Once again, the Gospel of Luke is the only one to recount the story of Martha and Mary (10:38-42). Luke shows us there are varieties of hospitality but also recommends to us one over the other. Martha and Mary respond to Christ present in their home with hospitality. Martha goes about preparing the meal and straightening up the house; but Mary offers Christ an even deeper welcome: she listens. Listening to someone whose opinion everyone else had discredited; listening to teenager rather than trying to criticize or ignore; listening to the lonely senior who may at times ramble; listening to the mentally ill who have lost touch with reality: listening is the deepest form of hospitality. Listening is an important way to acknowledge the divinity that lives in the other person. Luke again takes his own course in 19:1-10. Luke's is the only Gospel to tell the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, the short of stature man that climbs a Sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Christ. Zacchaeus, a tax collector, and a wealthy one to boot, held in universal disregard because of his collusion with the oppressive Roman occupiers. And what does Jesus do? Affront of affronts, Jesus invites himself over to spend the day at his house! Jesus overturns convention and social roles to establish parity with an agent of an oppressive foreign government. Zacchaeus climbed a tree to search out Jesus, In imposing himself on Zacchaeus's hospitality, Jesus was "seeking and saving what was lost." And this became the occasion of a life-changing conversion for Zacchaeus: "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I shall repay it five times over." Whom we fear, whom others belittle, whom we associate with the forces of oppression, we can liberate by reaching out in hospitality. And the greatest liberation, perhaps, will be occasioned in us. In Hebrew tradition, the presence of God was often recognized with hospitality. We want to give the best we have to our divine guest. In Genesis 18:1-10, Abraham prepared an elaborate welcome for God, who visited in the form of three visitors. This calls to my mind a story about another faithful servant of God to whom was shared the exciting news that God would pass by his tent that very day. As the story goes, he excitedly began similar preparations for the special visit, preparing bread and killing the best steer. It so happens that, in the midst of the preparation, a wanderer happened by and asked the man for respite from the weather. But the man responded, "At any other time I would help you, but, behold, the God of my ancestors is going to visit me this very day, and I am in the midst of preparation for him. Please return at another time." So the wanderer continued on. Finally, the man and all his consort had everything in ready for God. They had basins of water at ready to wash the feet of their Guest. They were cleaned and wearing their finest clothes. The table was set and the food prepared. But God did not come. They waited another hour and still no God. Trusting that God is true to His word, the man waited a third hour, then a fourth and a fifth; disappointed, he finally gave up, took down all his preparations, and went to bed. During the night he again heard the voice of God. And he told God how disappointed he was that he did not visit. But God replied, "But we came, O man. Who was that wanderer who sought respite from the weather?" HOSPITALITY AND CHRISTIAN MINISTRY Hospitality is a way we recognize the indwelling God in our brothers and sisters. In particular, hospitality offered to the marginelized, the outcast, the immigrant, the stranger is very much part of the ministry of liberation. Not only is the person we now accept as guest (and as God) liberated from the estrangement that had overshadowed them, but the person offering the hospitality is liberated as well. The estranged now experience welcome; and the one who welcomes experiences (or remembers) what it's like to be estranged. Our liturgies express the liberating love of God in Christ when they reflect hospitality. In our Churches, then, all welcome and are received without proprietorship, seniority, superiority: the female as the male; the young family as the senior citizen; the person who puts five cents in the collection plate as the person who puts fifty dollars. Our liturgies particularly are expressions of the liberating love of God in Christ when the art of listening has been cultivated: where the Word of God is attended to; where children are taken seriously; where the prayers of the faithful come from the assembly, where the "Amen" when the communicant takes the Eucharist in his or her hand is not a formality but a welcoming and an expression of faith. We all stand on a "level place" in the eyes of God. |