What you say and do matters. It affects other people. The longer you walk life’s path as a professed Christian, the more you should be overwhelmed by the radical nature of Jesus’s openness, inclusivity, and hospitality. Every time one thinks they have made their circle of life wide enough, inclusive enough, and caring enough, Jesus says, “No, make it wider.” “Whoever is not against us is for us.” What a fantastic declaration. Whoever doesn’t oppose the beautiful and salvific works of God, mercy, love, kindness, justice, liberation, peacemaking, healing, and nurturing is on Jesus’s side, and our job is to welcome, host, include, and love them. How mind-blowing is that?” Yet, do we understand what an opportunity this is? What if we cleared paths for each other? Removed obstacles for each other? Helped each other towards success?” This might get to the heart of what Jesus is saying. Life is not a competition; we’re in this together, and this thing is called life. We’re on the path together. How much better off would we be if we could be path clearers, stumbling block removers? Jesus isn’t condemning us; he’s reminding us of truths we intuitively know. The way of the cross is hard. It can hurt. There is a place called hell that we create for ourselves and others when we cling to our sins and stumbling blocks instead of allowing Jesus, in his mercy, to remove them. “It has been said that we might do well to see sin, like addiction, as a destructive disease instead of something for which we’re culpable or punishable and that ‘makes God unhappy.’ If sin indeed makes God ‘unhappy,’ it is because God loves us, desires nothing more than our happiness, and wills the healing of the disease of sin” [Fr. Richard Rohr]. What would it be like to cut away the disease for our own sakes and for the sakes of our fellow travelers? What would it be like if the children of God helped each other to succeed? Imagine the charismatic Christian removing stumbling blocks for the liturgical one. The liberal clearing paths for the conservative. The insider befriending the outsider. What would happen if we expanded the circle, lengthened the table, and decided to feast together? We’d become The Company of the Blessedly Wounded. We wouldn’t look as shiny and unassailable as we did before. But we would be path clearers. We’d be stumbling block removers. We’d be healers. Best of all, no little one would ever lose their way again because of us.