He joined a group of teachers who really cared for the students. One boy got in trouble and came to school in wrinkled clothes every day. The teachers found out that every day when he went home, he lifted his mother's drug-addled head off the table and force-fed her, then washed his clothes out and hung them on a line. The teachers bought him clothes, boots, a coat.
This was the late '70's - early '80's. Our children attended an all-white Catholic suburban grammar school. We wanted them to meet African-Americans. So our kids visited their Dad's school, acted in the plays he directed. We had a huge cast party at our house. Our children were amazed that some of the young black students they now knew were delighted and relieved to be able to take a walk down our suburban streets without fear of gang attacks or bullets.
Our children had learned from a young age not to believe the stereotypes about poor, city blacks. Many were their friends now. They knew these city kids as bright, aspiring individuals, some of whom are their friends to this day.
When they grew older, our kids widened their parents' horizons by introducing us to people we hadn't known before. Two of our boys were passionately involved in theater productions. They introduced us to good friends, fellow actors, who were gay. One of our sons and his wife became friends with a gay couple, professionals, who had adopted a child, and introduced us. Stereotypes once again were erased. We had been taught by our children to know gays as individual, loving human beings.
One of our daughters gave birth to a child with autism. We learned as a family about a disability that had only been a word on a page for us before. Our grand-son is, simply, differently-abled and we see him for the precious person he is: an individual human being, who loves sports and is deserving of a full, rich life.
One son and his wife are good friends with a couple who have a child, a beautiful daughter, with Down's Syndrome. None of our children or grand-children categorize her by her disability - they rejoice with her family over her unique abilities. They hurt with her family over the fact that so many Doctors treat such children as tragedies to be eliminated rather than gifted beings to be shared with the world.
When our family hurt, broken because of one of our son's terminal cancer, people came from every social, racial, religious, and cultural group, to take care of us. Our extended family had expanded past many of society's barriers to reflect the human race. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and non-believers reached out to share our pain and made it easier to carry.
Families are the foundation of society, the glue that holds our immense human family together, despite cultural, racial, and sexual differences, as well as the differently - abled. When our family, as individuals and as a team, reached out to those who were "different," befriending and being befriended by them, we and our new friends were simultaneously teaching one another new dimensions of love and acceptance.
Jesus' life here was spent reaching out and past the barriers that people erect to live safely with their "own kind." He did it by getting to know people, one on one as individuals. He gave the people who lived on the fringe the immense joy of knowing they were all Sons and Daughters of God. He was not popular; he was insulted for daring to befriend every individual and group that his society looked down upon. But his prayer always was that God's people may become one.
When, as individual Christians - and as families - we follow Jesus' Call to be Other Christs, we carry his serene openness and Gospel message of Love and Joy to everyone, everywhere. We dare to recognize and affirm the Divine Spark, the soul made in God's Image, in everyone. We choose to love, and not judge, all those whom God deliberately sends into our lives. For God is the Only One Who can accurately judge the individual human heart.
The more our hearts enlarge, the more our lives enlarge. Our lives as individuals and families become infinitely richer as we reach out and appreciate the infinite richness and variety of God's beautiful people.
"Love one another as I have loved you," Jesus said. (John 13:34-35.)
Jesus also said "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37.)