Christian concern for the lost

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

TO be like Christ, as we should, we have to develop an abiding compassion toward everyone, especially the lost ones. We are reminded of this Christian duty in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) Compassion should have a universal coverage, not limited only to some sentimental aspects of things, nor simply to relieving the economic and material needs of the people.

The material needs of man may be pressing and urgent, but these should not detract us from giving priority attention to the precious spiritual needs of man to relate himself with God and others in true love, irrespective of whether he is rich or poor, a prince or a pauper.

It’s true that looking after the pressing material needs of people can already be an overwhelming task. This should not be attended to on an ad hoc basis alone, giving dole-outs and temporary relief. This has to be given stable and effective solutions, like creating jobs, enabling poor people to find work through education and continuing training, especially considering that the world economy is rapidly evolving, etc.

But over and above this concern is the care of the more important necessity of man—his spiritual life, his relation with God that should be developed according to God’s love and concern for everyone, and thus, his relation with everybody else. Christ himself gave more importance to forgiving sins than to curing the paralytic. (cfr Mk 2,1-12)

In this concern, we have to understand that the poor may not be the one who are economically poor. They can be the richest, the most educated, the most famous and powerful, but who happen to be farthest from God. They can turn out, in that context, to be the poorest of the poor, the lost sheep that have strayed farthest from God.

They pose as the most difficult challenge in our duty to show compassion, to reflect in our life God’s love for all. Are we in the first place aware of this reality? Are we up to the challenge? Do we know how to tackle this problem?

And so, we just have to learn how to fraternize with sinners with the view of helping them return to God. That’s what Christ did, even to the extent of ruffling the sentiments of some people who considered themselves to be without sin. For example, he chose Matthew, a tax-collector, another name for big sinners at that time, as one of the apostles. He dined with Zaccheus, another rich man regarded also as a sinner at that time.

Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners.

This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness.

We need to train ourselves in this department because we obviously have to contend with tremendous difficulties that we have to learn to surmount. We will always have our biases and preferences and other natural and human conditionings that, if not handled well, can be divisive elements in our life.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com