In His dealings with others we are told that Our Lord "received them all." He was always ready to help anybody, at any time, in any way. People had come to take this for granted; there are instances where He is told to "come" and "heal," where He is interrupted in His speech and made to listen to a tale of distress, where His followers are plainly dissatisfied with His conduct and do not hesitate to tell Him so and advise Him how to act, where questions are put to Him maliciously or foolishly, where problems are proposed with a showing of righteousness, with an air of injured innocence, as a smokescreen to hide the secret sins lurking in the hearts of those who propose them.
"He received them all." He was unwearied in His patience, forgetful on every occasion of His own arrangements - His need of food or rest - ready to give counsel, fearlessly tearing away the mask of hypocrisy, lifting the burden of sin from a repentant sinner, instructing, warning, appealing.
What is the explanation of this inexhaustible patience? In every single person who crossed His path Jesus Christ saw an immortal soul. The shell of the body might be an unsightly casket but it contained a priceless gem. The twisted human character might be repulsive and deceitful; but a soul was there too, a soul made to know Eternal Truth and possess and be possessed by Infinite Love. The discerning eye of Christ did not rest on the exterior; it penetrated below the surface and discovered that everyone was worth while, everyone had a soul that was capable of indefinite development to contain more and yet more of the divine life.
This is the mind of Christ, as expressed so forcefully in His momentous question: "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Ugly roots when buried in the ground can produce beautiful flowers and shrubs; the chrysalis will develop into a lovely butterfly, and there is no person so unprepossessing, so ignorant, boorish, sinful, hypocritical, but he has an immortal soul which one day may become one of the brightest luminaries in God's heaven.
When St. Joan of Arc finally succeeded in coming face to face with the Dauphin, she found him preoccupied with trivialities at the moment his country was in imminent danger. His placid indifference contrasted strikingly with her eagerness, her vivid grasp of the situation, and the need of immediate action. But he lacked sympathy, and it would be easy to excuse Joan had she shown impatience and annoyance.
When Jesus Christ moved in and out amongst men, He saw, all the time, the unclouded beauty of His Father's face, and all the time He realized the beauty and transcendent importance of the human soul. The salvation and sanctification of a soul is worth any amount of patience and longsuffering; that is why He so easily brushes aside insult and insincerity the moment hope begins to dawn that His audience will see and sympathize with His point of view. "If you could see into the beauty of an immortal soul," St. Catherine of Siena wrote to her confessor, "you would think it little to give your life a thousand times over for its salvation." In another place she declares that if she could without offending God stand in the very mouth of hell, she would gladly do so in order to turn back souls from entering there.
This is to have that mind which was also in Christ Jesus. This is to sympathize with Christ. This is to see life as He sees it.
Jesus, give me to sympathize with You. In the person whose mannerisms irritate me, in the man who is deliberately hurtful in speaking to me or about me, in him who snubs me, sneers at my efforts, who is sarcastic, lying, puffed up with pride - in all these, give me the grace to look deeper, like You, and discover an immortal soul and, discovering it, to imitate Your loving patience. This is the sympathy with You I would acquire, through Your example, through Your divine grace working on my infirmity.