God Loves Even Us

Some time ago, the following item went out over the Associated Press wire:

Keeping a sense of humor about one’s name can help — as in the case of a Filipino Archbishop, Cardinal Jaime Sin. He often tells how he enjoys inviting people to “the house of Sin,” his residence in a Manila suburb. ‘When I was little, I suppose you could have called me a ‘Venial Sin’,” says the Cardinal. “But after I die, people will realize that I was a ‘Mortal Sin’.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Luke tells us that when the Pharisees saw Jesus associating with certain types of people they felt superior to, they criticized Him. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus to hear Him,” Luke says. ‘And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them'” (Luke 15:1-2). These people were heavy-duty sinners in the minds of the Pharisees: greedy extortionists and women of the streets,…