The Bible says that Jesus was the only perfect person in history and yet He managed to notoriously attract the imperfect. Even in His day, Jesus had a great deal of respect for people who didn’t believe. He understood their problems with the Church, hypocrisy, injustice, oppression, racism, poverty, etc. His teachings were constantly connecting the Gospel to the basic problems that you and I see in the world. He was communicating through word and deed, a gospel of mercy and grace. Reconciliation between God and man was so essential that He laid down His life to see it through. He was moved with compassion and went out of His way to embrace the unloved and unworthy to prove that even “nobodies” matter to God.
St. Augustine wrote, “By loving the unlovable, You made me lovable.” Because Jesus commanded us to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37), those who follow Him are to look at the world through His eyes, and to live a life that reflects what He taught.
