Reach all to heal

The portion of the Letter of Paul to the Romans in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today ends with the phrase “each of us will be accountable to God”. (Romans 14:12). What is the nature of this accountability? Kirk Peck of CreightonUniversity expresses the nature of this accountability as like the relationship between parents and children. Friar Jude Winkler uses the exhortation of Paul that we all live and die for God and not for ourselves as the call to abandon the sin, selfishness and passions which would keep us from giving our best efforts to help others. Parents can exhibit selflessness which is witness to both these themes. The Gospel from Luke presents a few dualistic points to begin contemplation of this text. The Pharisees who are scandalized by Jesus understand that association with sinners risks contagion of good people with bad action. A parent identifies with this concern about who are the people with whom my child associates. Luke may be presenting an exaggeration when he suggests that the shepherd, people in Jesus society who were often thought unclean by Pharisees, would leave the 99 to search for the lost one. This action may be as radical as Jesus dining with tax collectors. The other point to consider, expressed by Kirk Peck, is that of the parent who does attend to the lost, distressed and needy child and as a consequence, spends less time with the children who are safe, happy and secure. Don Schwager notes that the good shepherd who has compassion for the sheep in distress and the wife concerned with the financial stress of poverty will search until they find and rejoice in the success with the one which may be considered insignificant to those made insensitive by power, passion, position, pride and privilege. The exaggerated love that we exhibit when we reach out to others is our preparation to be accountable to God.