Inner chamber

Who is it that we receive when we encounter another human being, if not Christ? For the Lord Himself says, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these brothers, you do unto Me.”

And the Desert Fathers teach that we should live as though only two persons were in this world, oneself and God. If that be true for us, then every other is as God to us, and we treat him as we treat Christ, who is both man and God.

Life is this kind of world: It is a foyer leading into the inner chamber, that is, the world to come. Let us prepare ourselves in the foyer, so that by welcoming all whom we receive here as hospitable porters, we ourselves may be welcomed by the Master into the inner chamber.