The life of Dorothy Day was dramatized in a movie by the title "Entertaining Angels." Dorothy Day began the Catholic Worker Movement. Dorothy did not grow up Catholic or even all that religious. Her parents belonged to an Episcopal church but once Dorothy left home, she also stepped away from church involvement. She even spent some time as an atheist.

However, when she was at a very low point in her life as a single mother a nun showed her kindness. This began a whole new chapter in Dorothy’s faith life. Slowly Dorothy began to explore faith, reawakening new feelings within her. She eventually joined the Catholic church. Even the name of the church she joined pointed to the path Dorothy would lead. She was baptized at "Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church."

After moving to New York City in the 1930s, Dorothy saw the desperate conditions that people were living in. Families were being evicted because they were unable to pay rent in the depressed economic times. Children were living on the street and at the time there were few organizations that could or would help.

So, Dorothy began to raise her voice in the form of a newspaper. She wrote articles exposing the degradation that the people were experiencing. She called out for people to see the poor around them. With a grounding in scriptures showing God’s compassion for the poor, Dorothy preached in written form.

Eventually writing articles was not enough. Action must be taken. So, in cooperation with others, Dorothy opened a house as a place of hospitality. People could come there for a meal, clothing, or just a place of shelter.

As word spread about this house of hospitality, many people across the country and eventually across the world began to open their own houses of hospitality. Countless numbers of people have been served with basic needs simply because a nun showed kindness to a single mother who was having a rough time.

In chapter 13, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is offering a kind of summary of the whole letter. This is the final chapter so, like a good writer, a conclusion where all of the loose ends get tied up is in order. Throughout the letter, the writer has offered explanations about a way to understand Christ as fully human and fully divine. There have been lengthy explanations about the saving faith of important Old Testament figures. Explanations of the saving nature of Christ’s sacrifice have been offered.

So to tie all these themes and explanations together the author offers this series of commands to the readers. Commands like: do not neglect, remember, keep, and be content.

The first command, "Let mutual love continue," in Greek says, "let philadelphia continue." This is of course not some desire for the continuation of a city in Pennsylvania. Does anyone know the motto or slogan of the city of Philadelphia? [the city of brotherly love]

So brotherly and sisterly love – mutual love – is to continue. Now if something is to continue it means that it has already begun. So the writer to the Hebrews is not telling the audience that they need to start something altogether new. They only need to continue to express their mutual love for all of God’s children.

I can remember in English class one of the hardest things to do when writing an essay was to come up with the one sentence thesis. To be able to sum up all that was said in an essay in one simple sentence meant to cut out any explanation or any of the great illustrations used throughout. To write a solid thesis statement is to trim away all flowery language and get to the root of what you’re trying to say.

Well, this verse is the thesis statement of the whole letter to the Hebrews. It all boils down to "let mutual love continue." The explanations of Christ’s humanity and divinity, the explanations about how Christ’s death saves, even the highlights from the Old Testament, all boil down to "let mutual love continue." The mutual love has been going on from the beginning of time and now the author tells the people that they are to continue with it. And we as readers of this letter, listening in on these commands, we too are to continue to live out this mutual love.

So if verse 1 is the thesis statement, the remaining verses from the passage are expansions on what that thesis statement looks like in day-to-day life. The author has already traced the history of the mutual love in the preceding 12 chapters, so now it’s just about showing what that love looks like on into the future.

So with the lens that each of the following verses is explaining what mutual love looks like we hear that mutual love first of all looks like offering hospitality to strangers. Dorothy Day lived out her love for others by extending hospitality to strangers.

Next, mutual love is lived out by remembering those who are in prison and those who are being tortured. But it’s not enough to just remember them but the author calls us to put ourselves in their shoes. We are to remember those who are in prison as though we are in prison with them. We are to remember those who are being tortured as though we were in their bodies. Talk about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes…

Mutual love is about honoring marriage. A marriage is a commitment made by two individuals but that isn’t enough to make a marriage last. For mutual love to be lived out in marriage, each one of us, married or not, show love to one another by supporting the commitments we have made to one another.

Mutual love is about making sure our priorities are lined up correctly. Mutual love is lived out when God, not money holds the highest place. Mutual love is lived out by being able to say when we each have enough.

So if we look at this passage again and look for how these commands live out mutual love we begin to see a whole new way of living in community with each other. If we are to live out mutual love then we can’t look at our neighbor and say, "I’ve got mine, you get your own." To live out mutual love is to extend a hand to the stranger, the neighbor, the friend. To live out mutual love is to be willing to feel the pain of the stranger, the neighbor, the friend.

And the reason behind all this call to express mutual love for one another – Jesus Christ. The author writes, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Christ continues in love as from the beginning of time. Christ’s love extends from yesterday, to today, and on into eternity. Because we have been extended love before our parents even knew we existed, we are called upon to continue the chain of love. Because we were extended hospitality, we are to continue to extend hospitality to others. Because we have been given so much, we are to pay it forward.

Dorothy Day had been in two common-law marriages, undergone one abortion, and had one child whose father was no longer in the picture. One morning when she was at the market she saw a nun picking up vegetables – more vegetables than the church would need to feed those who lived there. Eventually Dorothy came to the church to see what the nun was up to. In a courtyard of the church with only a tarp for shade a rag-tag group of people gathered. Soup was cooking on an outdoor stove and any who came there were fed.

When Dorothy was fed, she didn’t just receive nourishment for her stomach. As the nun ladled out soup, she ladled out love. Dorothy was transformed because someone reached out and invited her into God’s love.

The problems of the day can feel so overwhelming at times. We want to help but sometimes it just seems too difficult, too dangerous, too inconvenient. Living out mutual love is not easy. But the thing about mutual love is that we are not alone in it. The whole responsibility for solving the world’s problems does not rest upon our shoulders. Along with the psalmist we too can say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

Christ who began the love will continue it alongside us. And who knows, perhaps by extending a hand, a smile, a prayer, we too will entertain angels unaware.