"it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” (Matthew 18:14)

"it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”  (Matthew 18:14)
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Suppose one small boy has fallen into a gutter.

What should we do to save the boy?

Advise him to come out, ourselves doing nothing except just moving our lips advising him  to come out?

Scolding him for having fallen in and telling him to be careful next time?

Taking him lessons about how to be careful while walking by a gutter?

Just feeling sorry for him?

None of these can save him.

By the time we  finish the advice he will have  been washed away.

The only option left is ourselves jumping into the gutter to save him.

That is what our Lord Jesus did.

When we became sinners by disobeying His commandments,

He became man like us to redeem us from sin.

To use the  language of the above analogy

'He jumped into the gutter of the sinful world 

where we have  fallen,

to lift us from our sin

and

to wash the sewage on our soul with His blood.'

Jesus came to the world in search of sinners to call them all to repentance.

In those day tax collectors were considered to sinners.

Jesus chose one of His Apostles, Matthew, from among the tax collectors.

Another Apostle, judas betrayed Him just before His crucifixion.

But Jesus kept him with Himself throughout His public life.

Surely He loved Him, a sinner, very much.

When the Pharisees asked,

"Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus replied, 

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor,

but the sick.

I have not come to call the righteous,

but sinners.”

Through  the parable about the lost sheep,

He makes it clear that He does not want even a single  sinner to be lost.

It is His desire that all the sinners be saved.

He is against sin, but He is all for  the sinner.

However heinous the sin may be,

God will forgive,

considering

not the heinousness of the sin,

but the greatness of His love for us.

Jesus  humbled himself to so low a level,

in order to lift us to His level,

that He took upon Himself all our sins

and amended for them.

As our God

His love is great and all embracing.

One day the scribes and the Pharisees brought before Him an adulterous woman

and asked Him His opinion about stoning her as per Mosaic law.

Jesus said that one without sin should stone Her first.

The accusers left her one by one.

Jesus had mercy on her,

forgave her sins

and asked her not to sin again.

We being sinners we have no right to judge and punish other sinners.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but to save it  through him.

Jesus' unlimited love must move us to contrition,

which will move us to
the confessional,

which will move us to forgiveness,

which will move us to Eucharist,

who will move us to heaven

where we will enjoy everlasting life.

All of us are sinners,

Jesus loves us all

and

wants all of us to be saved.

Lourdu Selvam.