Chapter 53: The reception of guests (paragraphs 1-4)

Any guest who happens to arrive at the monastery should be received just as we would receive Christ himself, because he promised that on the last day he will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

(From para. 1 of Ch. 53 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

As I get older, it seems that life gets both more knowable, through wisdom perhaps, and also more mysterious. The guise of a stranger seems to be a very appropriate way to express this paradox-- unknowing Christ in order to recognize him.