Reaching out

IF we truly want to follow Christ, we should always feel

the urge and the passion for reaching out to those who are lost,

separated from him and his Church, those who are confused and in

error, those in the peripheries in whatever sense “peripheries” can be

understood, whether in terms of spirituality and morals or in social

and economic terms, etc.

  

            This, I suppose, is to have that universal attitude of

Christ to save all men as evidenced by what St. Paul once said: that

God our Savior “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge

of the truth.” (1 Tim 2,4)

  

            That is why Christ himself, before he went up to heaven,

told his apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to

every creature.” (Mk 16,15) And if we preach that gospel integrally,

we should not fail to realize that Christ gave special, solicitous

attention to the lost, to the sinners, the weak and the sick, etc.

  

            He, for sure, loved everyone, but he gave special

attention to the lost, the sinners, the weak, the sick. He was

uncomfortable only with those who were self-righteous, rigid in their

own old ideas and ways of what is good and bad, what is to be with God

and what is to go against him. They seem unable to improve on what

they already have defined.

  

            This truth of our faith can be seen in the lessons we can

learn from the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the

prodigal son. (cfr. Lk 15,3-32) And all over the gospel, we can always

see Christ giving special attention to the sinners and less

privileged. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to

repentance,” he very clearly said. (Lk 5,32)

   

            We should try our best to adapt this same attitude of

Christ. Like him we should be willing to make sacrifices just to reach

out to those who are lost. We should not be afraid to get dirty, and

more importantly, we should find new ways to be able to reach out to

them.

  

            That some people are lost can mean that the usual ways of

dealing with souls and the status quo of the spiritualities around, do

not quite work with them anymore. We have to find new ways, inspired

always by the Holy Spirit, to deal more effectively with their

predicament.

  

            This is not to go against the old and traditional, or

against what already has been defined by the Church’s magisterium. It

is rather to find new ways and to innovate, but always under the

guidance of the Holy Spirit who never runs out of new things while

retaining the old ones.

  

            This can be seen as part of Christ’s teaching as when he,

in that parable of the lost sheep, said that the shepherd left behind

the 99 of his 100 sheep that were already secure, just to look after

the lost one.

  

            We can just imagine what imaginative, creative and

innovative things the shepherd had to do, not to mention, the effort

and sacrifices he had to endure, just find the lost sheep. Even in our

own spiritual lives where there will always be something that is not

working well, thus, we always need find new, innovative ways to deal

with it. We cannot remain with the status quo of our spiritual life.

  

            Thus, in dealing with those who are far from God or from

the Church, we have to find ways of how to effectively deal with them.

Some give-and-take will have to be made without compromising what is

essential. And what is essential is in the end the spirit of love that

Christ showed us, a love that goes all the way to assuming the sins of

men and offering his life on the cross.