Jesus tells his followers that he was not called to be with the righteous but with sinners. One of the great stories from American history tells how so many Catholic men and women spent their lives caring for those whom society has rejected. When one looks at the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the heroes of our faith cared for the poor, uneducated, orphans, and abused. Women played a particularly important role in this effort to imitate Christ's closeness to the abandoned. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in her work with immigrants and Sr. Ignatia Gavin with her work in establishing Alcoholics Anonymous are only two examples of women who saw “sinners” as a reflection of the divine and treated them with the respect and care they deserved. The church recognizes these women and others as models and calls us to imitate their way of life as best we can. Not an easy task, but one that even in its smallest efforts brings us closer to an imitation of Christ.