A friend of mine once commented to me that during her time as a lector for her parish, she was asked to remove "all those with self-imposed troubles" from the prayer request list. This seems to be a sad reflection of a country-wide obsession for assigning blame and fault. And although public apologies have become almost meaningless in our current society, simply satyre for comedians, we, those who are followers of Christ and members of His Church, should never allow fault to determine who is the recipient of our generosity or our prayers.
There is a biblical mandate to provide compassion for both the leper, who was simply a random victim of sickness, AND the prostitute, who was a victim of her own life decisions. Jesus showed compassion to His friends, His enemies, His betrayers, and His murderers. There was no limit for Christ and there should be no limit for us.
Dorothy Day encouraged love and service of 3 groups: 1. Love the poor. 2. Love those who are not poor. 3. Love Christ and His Church. Can we make it any more simple? There are no exceptions for those who drink, or are guilty. No exceptions for the mother with 8 kids and no father, no exceptions for the Disney stars turned sluts and crack addicts. No exceptions for those with bad credit, jobless, lazy, stupid, cheaters, swindlers, liars, illegal immigrants...pick your negative label or stereotype and there are still no exceptions for Christs love and there is no exception for ours.
If we follow Christ, we serve all without question, without exception and without judgement.
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