Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Tim ReidyAugust 31, 2007
Our open house is officially over, but you can still access old Word columns by registering with our site. From now on Father Daniel Harrington’s current Word column will only be available to subscribers. Our special $12 offer is still in effect, so we hope you’ll join us. It’s a great deal! In 2004 Sister Dianne Bergant wrote that the parable Jesus tells in Luke’s gospel "condemns not excellence but arrogance. It demonstrates how people who assume places of honor risk having to relinquish them in favor of someone more distinguished." Father John Donahue, in his column from 2001, writes that Jesus "invokes the theme of reversal--those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while the humble will be exalted--and goes on to shatter those very dining rituals that he seemed to support. Reciprocity and the practice of inviting people of equal status were the twin pillars of ancient dining customs. Jesus rejects this and says that you should instead invite ’the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,’ groups of no status who, Jesus notes, will not be able to pay you back." Tim Reidy, Online Editor
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Delegates hold "Mass deportation now!" signs on Day 3 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee July 17, 2024. (OSV News photo/Brian Snyder, Reuters)
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
Kevin ClarkeNovember 21, 2024
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Gerard O’ConnellNovember 21, 2024
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
J.D. Long GarcíaNovember 21, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?
Kathleen BonnetteNovember 21, 2024