Cardinal Tobin: No One is Unwanted in God’s Family
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Vol. 7. No. 3
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Every human life is sacred. Every person is a child of God who possesses incomparable dignity and worth—no matter what his or her state in life or personal gifts and talents. Regardless of who we are, or what our background is, or the state of our physical, emotional or mental health, or our accomplishments, or our race, religion or cultural heritage, or our age, or our social status; every individual human being is precious in the sight of God and, therefore, should also be valuable in the eyes of his or her fellow human beings.
No one is unwanted by God. His love embraces all.
Think for a moment of the power of those statements. Can it really be true that God—who made the universe in all its vastness and complexity—knows and loves each and every one of us, including (or perhaps especially) those of us who have been rejected by parents, families, communities or society as a whole?
Yes! God sees in us (all of us, every one of us) something that is worth more than we can possibly imagine—something that far exceeds silver or gold, power or prestige, fame or fortune.
When Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass at the Pontifical Parish of Saint Thomas of Villanova (Castel Gandolfo) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 (see below), he reminded us that “obeying the Lord’s commandments and turning our minds and hearts to him does not involve multiplying outward acts, but rather looking to our own hearts and discovering that there God has written his law of love.” In his commentary on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37), Pope Leo tells us that the parable is really about compassion. He says:
True, the Gospel story speaks of the compassion that moved the Samaritan to act, but it first speaks of how others regarded the wounded man lying on the roadside after being attacked by robbers. We are told that a priest and a Levite “saw him and passed by” (v. 32). Of the Samaritan, however, the Gospel says, “he saw him and had compassion on him” (v. 33).
The Samaritan was despised by the Jews. And yet, he is the one who saw the wounded man as a man loved by God who was deserving of his compassion, and his help, not because of his religious, political, or economic status, but simply because of his human dignity.
During his first World Day of Peace message in 2014, Pope Francis said, “To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love is to open up a horizon of hope…New ideologies, characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fueling that ‘throw away’ mentality which leads to contempt for, and the abandonment of, the weakest and those considered ‘useless.’ ”
Despair is a consequence of the throwaway mentality. The indifference shown by those who “saw him and passed by” betrays a radical devaluation of the human person. Hope comes when human dignity is recognized and affirmed in every person, especially those who are poor and vulnerable, and those who are social outcasts and strangers among us.
Every human being is wanted by God because every single person has been given the gift of life. This gift is a share in God’s own being that is more precious than anything we can possibly imagine. Life itself is the treasure given to us by God to be nurtured and protected and shared generously with others. Nothing on Earth is more valuable than human life. That’s why deliberately taking a human life by murder, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, capital punishment, or any other means is so serious. God alone gives life, and only he can take it back again.
No one is unwanted by God. That’s why we reverence all life, why we help the handicapped and care for the infirm and the elderly, why we encourage and assist women with unplanned pregnancies, why we welcome migrants, and why we speak out forcefully against all attempts to treat society’s unwanted human beings as somehow less valuable than they truly are in the sight of God.
No one is unwanted in God’s family. We don’t always show it as clearly as we should, but all are welcome. All are valued. All are members of the Body of Christ. All life is sacred—especially those who feel unwanted or who have been rejected by the unjust, unloving, and inhuman laws, policies, and social practices of this and every other age.
No one should ever have to wonder, “Does God really want me?” God wants everyone. That means he wants you and me, and every human being who has ever lived, and everyone who is yet to be conceived.
With Pope Leo, the compassion of Jesus Christ compels us to say: “Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart. That is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers.”
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the one Christ, we are one
Brothers and sisters,
In this Sunday’s Gospel, we have heard one of Jesus’ most beautiful and moving parables. We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37).
That parable constantly challenges us to think about our own lives. It troubles our dormant or distracted consciences, and warns us about the risk of a complacent faith that is satisfied with the outward observance of the law but incapable of feeling and acting with the same merciful compassion as God.
The parable is really about compassion. True, the Gospel story speaks of the compassion that moved the Samaritan to act, but it first speaks of how others regarded the wounded man lying on the roadside after being attacked by robbers. We are told that a priest and a Levite “saw him and passed by” (v. 32). Of the Samaritan, however, the Gospel says, “he saw him and had compassion on him” (v. 33).
Dear brothers and sisters, how we look at others is what counts, because it shows what is in our hearts. We can look and walk by, or we can look and be moved with compassion. There is a kind of seeing that is superficial, distracted and hasty, a way of seeing while pretending not to see. We can see without being touched or challenged by the sight. Then too, there is seeing with the eyes of the heart, looking more closely, empathizing with the other, sharing his or her experience, letting ourselves be touched and challenged. This way of seeing calls into question the way we live our life and the responsibility we feel towards others.
The parable speaks to us first about God’s way of seeing us, so that we in turn can learn how to see situations and people with His eyes, so full of love and compassion. The Good Samaritan is really a figure of Jesus, the eternal Son whom the Father sent into our history precisely because he regarded humanity with compassion and did not walk by. Like the man in the Gospel who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, humanity was descending to the depths of death; in our own day too, we have to confront the darkness of evil, suffering, poverty and the riddle of death. Yet God has looked upon us with compassion; He wanted to walk our same path and come down among us. In Jesus, the Good Samaritan, He came to heal our wounds and to pour out upon us the balm of His love and mercy.
Pope Francis, who often reminded us that God is mercy and compassion, once referred to Jesus as “the compassion of the Father toward us” (Angelus, 14 July 2029). Saint Augustine tells us that, as the Good Samaritan who came to our aid, Jesus “wanted to be known as our neighbor. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us realize that He is the one who cared for the half-dead man beaten by robbers and left on the side of the road (De Doctrina Christiana, I, 30.33).
We can understand, then, why this parable is so challenging for each of us. If Christ shows us the face of a compassionate God, then to believe in Him and to be His disciples means allowing ourselves to be changed and to take on His same feelings. It means learning to have a heart that is moved, eyes that see and do not look away, hands that help others and soothe their wounds, shoulders that bear the burden of those in need.
In today’s first reading, we hear the words of Moses, who tells us that obeying the Lord’s commandments and turning our minds and hearts to Him does not involve multiplying outward acts, but rather looking to our own hearts and discovering that there God has written His law of love. If we realize deep down that Christ, the Good Samaritan, loves us and cares for us, we too will be moved to love in the same way and to become compassionate as He is. Once we are healed and loved by Christ, we too can become witnesses of His love and compassion in our world.
Brothers and sisters, today we need this “revolution of love.” Today, the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho is the road travelled by all those who descend into sin, suffering and poverty. It is the road travelled by all those weighed down by troubles or hurt by life. The road travelled by all who fall down, lose their bearings and hit rock bottom. The road travelled by all those peoples that are stripped, robbed and pillaged, victims of tyrannical political systems, of an economy that forces them into poverty, and of wars that kill their dreams and their very lives.
What do we do? Do we look and walk by, or do we open our hearts to others, like the Samaritan? Are we content at times merely to do our duty, or to regard as our neighbor only those who are part of our group, who think like us, who share our same nationality or religion? Jesus overturns this way of thinking by presenting us with a Samaritan, a foreigner or heretic, who acts as a neighbor to that wounded man. And He asks us to do the same.
The Samaritan, wrote Benedict XVI, “does not ask how far his obligations of solidarity extend. Nor does he ask about the merits required for eternal life. Something else happens: his heart is wrenched open… If the question had been ‘Is the Samaritan my neighbor, too?’ the answer would have been a pretty clear-cut no, given the situation at the time. But Jesus now turns the whole matter on its head: the Samaritan, the foreigner, makes himself the neighbor and shows me that I have to learn to be a neighbor deep within and that I already have the answer in myself. I have to become like someone in love, someone whose heart is open to being shaken up by another’s need” (Jesus of Nazareth, 197).
Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart. That is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers. In the end, love prevails, and proves more powerful than evil and death.
Dear friends, let us look to Christ, the Good Samaritan. Let us listen again today to His voice. For He says to each of us, “Go and do likewise” (v. 37).
( A selection from the homily of Pope Leo XIV, Pontifical Parish of Saint Thomas of Villanova, Castel Gandolfo, Sunday, July 13, 2025)
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying this Good Samaritan prayer:
Lord Jesus,
You teach us in your parable that there are two kinds of people—
those who bend down to help and those who look the other way.
Which kind of people will we be?
We say, “Yes, Lord, I will love you and love my neighbor.”
But then we ask:
The migrant…is she my neighbor?
Those in poverty…are they my neighbors?
Victims of war across the world…are they neighbors?
One who faces racism…is he my neighbor?
Those disabled or elderly…are they my neighbors?
You remind us: Yes. All of us are neighbors.
Show us how to love, Lord.
May we open our eyes.
May we emerge from our comfortable isolation.
May we build a world of compassion and dignity.
Lord Jesus, who was neighbor to all,
Help us to persevere in love.
Help us to restore dignity to the suffering.
Help us to build a society based not on exclusion, but on community.
Amen.
(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, inspired by Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti, nos. 64, 67, 70)