A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Meditation 28: Titus 1:8

For the next few days, we feature a painting by Vincent Van Gogh entitled, "Still Life with Open Bible," completed in 1885, a few months after the death of his father with whom he had a stormy relationship.

One of the most telling paintings about Van Gogh’s religious experience, it portrays two books. A large family Bible lies open to Isaiah 53, though its text is unreadable. To the right of the Bible stands a candlestick, its flame extinguished, while in the forefront lies a copy of Emile Zola’s 1884 novel "Joie de Vivre" (“Joy of Life”). The burned-out candle sheds no light on the Bible’s pages, yet from some other source a glow shines upon the novel.

This painting represents how Van Gogh lived his remaining five years in a conflicted state of mind, heart, and soul. Outwardly a rebel against the Church that had rejected him, he remained a student of the Bible and especially of its modern application.

His letters make clear that—however unconventional or even distorted his understanding of Scripture—his worldview was shaped by his reading and absorbing the message of the Gospel. This painting represents the religious and world views people experience that at times contrast and other times embrace each other.

As people of faith, we pray that the open Bible will be embraced by many to find a welcoming message. Van Gogh felt challenged by its message, yet never gave up on the Sacred Word of God and persevered, portraying his true relationship with God.  Is this our experience as well? What does this painting conjure up for us with our relationship with God and Scripture?

There are a few passages in the New Testament that are intended as instructions directed toward bishops, the successors of the apostles. Paul’s Letter to Titus is one of those places where we find such instructions. Among the many things listed, among the qualities required of a bishop, is that the bishop must be “hospitable” (1:8).

What does it mean to be hospitable? Someone is hospitable when they extend hospitality to others; people feel welcome in their presence and by how they are treated. To be hospitable requires effort, patience, a warm and welcoming attitude, etc. Thus, Paul is instructing bishops, like Titus, to make others feel welcome in their presence, and to open their doors to meet the needs of others. 

Now, we might think this advice is really only for bishops, so unless we are bishops—and most of us are not and never will be bishops—then we don’t need to pay attention to this advice. But this is not really the case. Even if bishops are the primary focus of the instructions, they are not the only ones for whom they apply. Paul states that bishops must not be “drunkards,” “violent,” or “greedy for gain” (1:7). That doesn’t mean that if we aren’t bishops we are free to get drunk, be violent, or be avaricious!  

Moreover, hospitality is expected of Christians in general; it is not the exclusive purview of bishops. Bishops are “God’s stewards” (1:7), and thus they have a special obligation to strive to be like Christ. All of us, however, are called to be like Christ in the concrete circumstances of our lives, and thus, at some level, all of us are called to serve as stewards of God.

Help us, O Lord, regardless of our specific vocations or states in life, to live that hospitality which is incumbent upon all Christians so that we would be your stewards, your ambassadors in the world around us. Help us bring your love to others through our hospitality and service. 

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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