If only informed, courageous Catholic journalists would call certain people on the misleading one-liners they throw around! A perfect opportunity presents itself in the Netherlands with the uproar that has ensued over a priest's (proper) decision to deny Holy Communion to an open, practicing homosexual. [1983 Code of Canon Law: Can. 915 "Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion."] Those who protest the decision may be found flaunting signs containing the deceptive slogan "Jesus excludes no one", yet no article was found that calls protestors on their error. Actually Scripture is quite clear that Jesus does exclude certain persons - notably unrepentant sinners. Furthermore, our Lord personally drove people out of the temple with a whip (Jn. 2:15), called various people hypocrites, devils, serpents, and vipers and told his followers that "If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (see Lk. 14:26). He also says that "whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mk. 16:16) and explicitly tells his disciples to reject certain persons. Some examples include...
"And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Lk. 9:5)
"After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic, realizing that such a person is perverted and sinful and stands self-condemned." (Ti. 3:10-11)
"We instruct you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us." (2 Thes. 3:6)
Scripture also tells us that some people will be eternally excluded from His presence. For example...
"Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." (Eph. 5:5)
"But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death." (Rv. 21:8)
"The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mt. 13:41-42)
"Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10)
"Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21)
"For it is surely just on God's part to repay with afflictions those who are afflicting you, and to grant rest along with us to you who are undergoing afflictions, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels, in blazing fire, inflicting punishment on those who do not acknowledge God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal ruin, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power" (2 Thes. 1:6-9)
And, in fact, Scripture indicates that only a few will be saved (or "not excluded")...
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mt. 7:13-15)
The Church's earliest leaders - men who knew Christ personally (including St. Paul who spoke to Christ after His Resurrection) - were not afraid to say things like "Whoever sins belongs to the devil" (St. John, 1 Jn. 3:8) and "Would that those who are upsetting you might also castrate themselves!" (St. Paul, Gal. 5:12) They referred to certain people as "perverse and wicked" (St. Paul, 2 Thes. 3:2) and as Satan's ministers (cf. 2 Cor. 11:13-15) - they certainly were not mere pacifists who would allow sinners to purposely desecrate Christ's true Flesh & Blood in order to be "inclusive". "Do not give what is holy to dogs..." (Mt. 7:6)
It is true that Jesus does not exclude people from is His mercy & forgiveness - but to be salvific, there is the necessary condition of repentance. To throw around misleading phrases such as "Jesus excludes no one" in order to promote desecration of the Holy Eucharist is loathsome. Unfortunately, however, such one-liners - often left uncontested by courageous people with facts - tend to appeal to onlookers who either don't know better or who are engaged in wishful thinking.
The bottom line is that if Jesus didn't condemn people based on their actions (or lack of), but had rather come with the simple message that "I'm okay, you're okay", He wouldn't have made such fierce enemies and wouldn't have been crucified. The same goes for the other apostles who where likewise martyred.
"For there is nothing which We believe to be more needful than that truth should find defenders more powerful and more numerous than the enemies it has to face; nor is there anything which is better calculated to impress the masses with respect for truth than to see it boldly proclaimed by learned and distinguished men." (Pope Leo XIII, "Providentissimus Deus", 1893)
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