There is anger in our land. It is loud and upsetting. Many are frightened by those that they do not know. They want to cast them out from their midst. It is difficult for them to trust people whose ways of speaking or living or believing seem so different from their own. They wonder if they or their loved ones will be safe around them. They ask why they should sacrifice for people who seem to be so strange. 

They have chosen someone to rid the land of those who do not seem to belong. He is an angry spiteful man who lies to them, but he echoes their fears so surely he will do the work that they dread. He will cast out the unfamiliar souls that they do not care to get to know. They think that he will be their protector even as they can see that he may be only protecting and enriching himself. 

They balk at being called xenophobic. They are not even sure what that word means. It sounds like something a haughty person who does not understand them might say. They are not aware that xenia is from an ancient Greek word that means friendship with a guest who is a stranger. It expresses the idea that each of us has an obligation to offer kindness even to those that we do not know. It is the foundation of the message of Jesus who was born in a manger in a strange land. It offers the idea that the person that we do not know among us may be Ulysses returning home changed and alien after twenty years of wandering. It may be a baby who has been sent by God to be our savior. Xenia tells us that we would do well to welcome the refugee, the trans woman, the poor and homeless, the people who are looking for refuge in our midst.

But we call the angry people xenophobic because instead of attempting to befriend those who are different from them they want to cast them out, to shame them and accuse them of being evil before even knowing them. Phobia is also from a Greek word that means fear or dislike of people or things or ideas that appear to be different or strange . It is the opposite of the idea of xenia. 

From the beginning of time humans have been taunted by power seekers playing on their fears. Even the ancient Greeks new of such tendencies. They wrote about it and fought over it. We are not unlike the ancestors from long ago. That baby in the manger came to be known as Jesus and his one and only commandment was filled with compassion and xenia. His words were direct and should be easy to understand, we must love one another even as we love ourselves. He listed no exceptions, named no group or person that we should spurn or hate and yet we become fearful and turn on our fellow humans again and again making excuses for our unwillingness to always be loving and welcoming even to strangers. 

The angry man who has been elected to soothe our fears is wrong. He is not sent from God to save us. He wants to do bad things. He wants vengeance, He wants us to turn on each other. We must not let him tear us apart. We must understand that it is in our natures to be fearful but it is also in our natures to learn and change and share our love and our good fortune. We can be our best together if only we try. We must stop the hateful man from ruining what is best about us. 

I went to a poetry reading. A gifted writer named Ryan Wilson offered the following words for us. These words spoke to me. They relate to our present condition. They suggest the struggles that we have to embrace xenia but show us what we must do. Think of what xenia means as you read this. Find the beautiful message. Be inspired. Then challenge yourself to do the right thing.

Xenia

One day a silent man arrives

At your door in an outdated suit,

Threadbare and black, like a lost mourner

Or a Bible salesman who’s been robbed.

Penniless, he needs a place to stay.

And you, magnanimous you, soon find

This stranger reading in your chair,

Eating your cereal, drinking your tea,

Or standing in your clothes at the window

Awash in afternoon’s alien light.

You tire of his constant company.

Your floorboards creak with his shuffling footfalls,

Haunting dark rooms deep in the night.

You lie awake in blackness, listening,

Cursing the charity or pride

That opened up the door for him

And wonder how to explain yourself.He smells like durian and smoke

But it’s mostly his presence, irksome, fogging

The mind up like breath on a mirror . . .

You practice cruelty in a mirror,

Then practice sympathetic faces.

You ghoul.

Your cunning can’t deceive you.

You are afraid to call your friends

For help, knowing what they would say.

It’s just you two.

You throw a fit when

He sneaks water into the whisky bottle,

Then make amends.

You have no choice

Except to learn humility,

To love this stranger as yourself,

Who won’t love you, or ever leave.

——Ryan Wilson