Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to our last reading on friendship. Today, I’m going to say some hard things to hear, but I think they must be said.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say, “Yes, but Jesus ate with sinners.” I get this in response to people trying to defend abortion, LGBT ideology, and the like. They are trying to make the point that since Jesus ate with sinners, we should ipso facto eat with them, too. They take it a step further because what they really want to say is that we should eat with them and tolerate the choices and lifestyles of those engaging in those particular sins.
It irritates me because they neglect to remember that Jesus didn’t eat with sinners because He wanted to encourage them in their sin or pat them on the back and tell them that He was an ally. No, He called them to repentance and transformation. He calls us all to holiness. And so, yes, we may need to “eat with sinners,” which means literally anyone we eat with, but if we are a good friend, we should never, ever watch them perish in their sin.
St. Francis is going to give us just a few more thoughts about friendship today, so let’s turn to Chapter 22 of the Third Part.
