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Rowan Atkinson reads the Gospel

Lord, thy one-liners are as good as thy tricks!

On the dialectic of hospitality

In matters of hospitality, receptivity and not confrontation is emphasized.  To be hospitable is to create a space for the other, welcome the other, and to realize that you too are an other.  Not so according to Nouwen.  Hospitality is a dialectic formed by the thesis of receptivity and the antithesis of confrontation.  The synthesis of which creates hospitality not only for the other, but also for yourself. 

Confrontation results from the articulate presence, the presence within boundaries, of the host to the guest by which he offers himself as a point of orientation and a frame of reference.  We are not hospitable when we leave our house to strangers and let them use it any way they want.  An empty house is not a hospitable house.  In fact, it quickly becomes a ghost house, making the stranger feel uncomfortable.  Instead of losing fears, the guest becomes anxious, suspicious of any noise coming from the attic or the cellar.  When we want to be really hospitable we not only have to receive strangers but also to confront them by an unambiguous presence, not hiding ourselves behind neutrality but showing our ideas, opinions and life style clearly and distinctly.  No real dialogue is possible between somebody and a nobody.

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, 98-99.

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