Marginal Christianity

Dorothy Day · The works of mercy · Learning mercy step by step · Paying the cost of love The spiritual works of mercy are to admonish the sinner, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive all injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead. The corporal works of mercy are to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to ransom the captive, to harbor the harborless, to visit the sick, and to bury the dead. When Peter Maurin talked about the necessity of practicing the works of mercy, he meant all of them. He envisioned houses of hospitality in poor parishes in every city of the country, where these precepts of our Lord could be put into effect. He pointed out that we have turned to the state through home relief, social legislation, and social security, that we no longer practice personal responsibility, but are repeating the words of the first murderer, “Am I my brot...

In the Gospel of John Jesus does not celebrate the “Last Supper” in the Upper Room with his disciples as is described in the other three gospels. In John he has already identified himself with the bread (Jn.6) and the wine (Jn.2). So in the Upper Room Jesus acts out a parable which interprets the meaning of the Supper as the other gospels present it. This parable is that of Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet (Jn.13:1-17). The Lord becomes the Servant, performing a most menial task. In the world of that time a Gentile slave could be ordered to wash someone’s feet but a Jewish slave could not. That the Jewish Jesus does this, chooses to do it, shows this is an act of freely chosen humility (humiliation?) not an imposed task. Further, this foot-washing was something that wives would do for husbands, children for parents, and disciples for their masters. Jesus, then, reverses the roles in relation to his disciples. We can conclude, then, that this radical act of service was a f...