FOR THE UNACCEPTABLE ONES
There’s a phrase of Jesus that undoubtedly reflects a conviction and a style of acting that surprised and scandalized his contemporaries: «The healthy have no need of a doctor, but the sick do…I haven’t come to call the righteous, but the sinners». The fact is historical: Jesus didn’t direct himself to the pious sectors, but to the unworthy and the undesirables.
The reason is simple. Jesus quickly grasped that his message is superfluous for those who live secure and satisfied in their own religion. The «righteous» hardly have a sensation of being in need of «salvation». Enough for them is the tranquility that is handed out to them when they feel themselves worthy before God and before the consideration of others.
Jesus says it graphically: someone who is full of health and strength doesn’t think about going to a doctor. Why do they need God’s forgiveness, those who feel themselves innocent in the depth of their being? How are they going to be grateful for God’s immense love and inexhaustible understanding – those who feel themselves «protected» by God for their scrupulous observance of God’s laws?
The one who feels herself a sinner lives out a different experience. She has clear consciousness of her poverty. She knows that she can’t present herself with sufficient dignity before anyone; much less before God; or even before her very self. What can she do except hope for God’s forgiveness in everything? Where is she going to find salvation, if not abandoning herself trustingly to God’s infinite love?
I’m not sure who will end up reading these lines. In these moments I think about those who feel yourselves uncapable of living according to the norms that society imposes; you who don’t have the energy to live out the moral ideal that religion establishes; you who are trapped in a contemptable life; you who don’t dare to look into the eyes of your spouse or your children; you who leave the prison to return to it once again; you who can’t escape prostitution… Don’t ever forget it: Jesus has come for you.
When you see yourselves judged by the Law, feel yourselves understood by God; when you see yourselves rejected by society, know that God welcomes you; when no one forgives your indignity, feel God’s unfailing forgiveness. You don’t deserve it. No one of us deserves it. But that’s the way God is: love and forgiveness. You can enjoy it and be thankful. Don’t ever forget it: according to Jesus, the only one who left the temple cleansed was that publican who beat his breast saying: «O God, be merciful to this sinner».
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
