Distinction XLII

GRATIAN. Part I. A priest, however, ought to be hospitable, lest he be among the number of those to whom it will be said in the judgment: “I was a stranger, and you did not receive me.” For how will one who, following the Apostle, ought to invite others to hospitality be able to be an exhorter to hospitality if he closes his own house to guests? For if a priest ought first to exact from himself and from his domestic church what he afterward commands the peoples; if first, in imitation of Christ, he himself ought to do the things that he afterward teaches the people, it is necessary that he receive the poor in hospitality, so that by his example he may more easily draw his subjects to hospitality. §1. Therefore, let one who is to be ordained priest recall to memory how Abraham and Lot merited to please God through works of hospitality and to receive angels as guests; how the angels, having entered the hospitable house in Sodom, delivered Lot with his family; how fire entered the houses closed to guests and destroyed them; how also, according to Jerome, one who is proved to retain for himself more than what is necessary is convicted of seizing the property of another; and so let him train himself through works of piety, so that he may receive from the Lord both the supports of the present life and the rewards of eternal glory, for both are promised to piety. §2. Hence the Apostle, writing to Timothy, says: “Train yourself in piety. For bodily exercise is indeed useful for a little; but piety is useful for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” Whoever is alien to this cannot be ordained a priest. §3. For if a widow is prohibited from being received in the Church when she has not received the poor in hospitality, has not washed the feet of the saints, and has not pursued every good work, much more are those proved alien to the work of piety to be prohibited from the priesthood. §4. Hence certain persons who despised works of hospitality are excommunicated in the Council of Gangra. For it was established in it thus [c. 11]:

If anyone despises those who faithfully provide agapae, that is, banquets, for the poor and summon brethren for the honor of the Lord, and is unwilling to participate in invitations of this kind, making little of what is done, let him be anathema. GRATIAN. Hence John the Evangelist in his epistle also excommunicates a certain Diotrephes, who neither received the poor and cast those who received them out of the Church. In hospitality, however, there is to be no selection of persons; rather, we ought without distinction to show ourselves hospitable to any whom we are able to assist.

Hence John Chrysostom in the epistle to the Hebrews [homily XI, toward the end, on c. 6]:

Part II. Let us desist from this absurd, diabolical, and destructive curiosity. For if someone says that he has been elected among the clergy, if he calls himself a priest, examine him; for in such matters unexamined communion is not without danger. Danger is involved in greater matters, for you do not give, but receive. But if he asks for nourishment, do not examine him concerning these things. How did Abraham show himself hospitable toward everyone? If he had been an examiner of those taking refuge with him, he would never have received angels as guests. For perhaps he would not have thought them angels but would have repelled them with the rest; but because he received everyone, he received angels also. For God will repay you a reward not from the life of those whom you receive, but from your will, from great honor shown, from mercy, and from goodness. Part III. GRATIAN. But although the banquets themselves are not to be despised, nevertheless they ought neither to be celebrated in churches nor clerics summoned to them to take portions from them for themselves.

Ministers of the altar or any clerics summoned to an agape ought not to take portions, because of the injury that from this occasion could be imputed to the ecclesiastical order.

Likewise [c. 28]. Part IV. It is not fitting to hold an agape in basilicas or churches and to eat inside, or to spread dining couches.

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage [c. 30]. Let no bishops or clerics banquet in a church, unless perhaps those passing through are refreshed there by the necessity of lodgings. Let the people also be prohibited from banquets of this kind as far as can be done.

[PALEA.

Likewise from the sayings of blessed Benedict the Abbot. Let the oratory be what it is called; and let nothing else whatsoever be done or stored there except what befits the divine ministries.]

[PALEA.

Likewise Augustine [epistle CIX, On the Rule of Monks]. In the oratory let absolutely nothing be done beyond the observance of praying and chanting psalms, so that the works continually performed may accord with this name.]