Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
April 9, 2015
In the Washington Post, Daniel Schulman thinks the libertarian Koch Brothers could "moderate" the GOP. The superficiality of this analysis is stunning.
Speaking of libertarians, can you guess what Flannery O'Connor thought of Ayn Rand?
A friend sent me this breathtaking commentary of Gregory the Great on the Emmaus story:
Since those with whom Truth was walking couldn’t be alien to charity, they invited him, a stranger, to be their guest.
They set the table, brought food, and recognized in the breaking of the bread the God they did not know as he explained the sacred scriptures. They were not enlightened by hearing God’s commandments, but by their own actions, for it is written, “It is not hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but doers of the law will be made righteous” (Romans 2:13). Let anyone who wishes to understand what he has heard be quick to fulfill in action what he has already been able to understand. The Lord was not recognized when he was speaking, but he deigned to be recognized as he was being fed.
Dearly beloved, love hospitality, love the works of charity. Paul says: “Let the charity of the brotherhood remain, and do not forget hospitality” (Hebrews 13:1–2). You know that when he comes in judgment he will say, “What you did to one of these, my least ones, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). You know that before the judgment, when he is received in his members, he is himself searching for those who receive him. And yet we are disinclined to offer the gift of hospitality. Consider, my friends, how great the virtue of hospitality is. Receive Christ at your tables so that you can be received by him at the eternal banquet. Offer hospitality now to Christ the stranger, that at the judgment you may not be a stranger, unknown to him, and may be received into his kingdom as one of his own.
