We must be ready to carry the burden of anyone whom we meet on our way, and who clearly needs help – not only those who deserve or seem to deserve help. Everyone is our ‘business’ and Christ in everyone, potentially or actually, has a first claim on us, a claim that comes before all else. We are here on earth to help carry the cross of Christ, the Christ hidden in other men, and to help in whatever way we can. We may, like Simon, have literally a strong arm to give; we may help to do hard work, we may have material goods to give; we may have time, which we desperately want for our self, but which we must sacrifice for Christ in man; we may have only suffering . . . We do not look for Christ only in saints; we look for him, perceive him by faith, and try to help him, most of all in sinners. It is in sinners that Christ suffers most today, in them that his need is most urgent.
– Caryll Houselander
