Dear St. Rita Families,

Last week, I reflected a little on empathy, and this week I want to look at compassion. The word means literally, “to suffer with”, and is closely related to empathy. However, its meaning is more related to sympathy, which also means “to suffer with” or “to feel with”. And while sympathy makes us feel bad for another when they suffer, compassion often pushes us to do something about the suffering. In this sense, it is much more related to mercy and even forgiveness than just to sharing a feeling of sorrow.

Often, our very human pleas to God for compassion and mercy tend to be about taking away a particular suffering or saving us from the consequences of our sins, or something along those lines. The fear of suffering and of death and of ruin or harm goes deep within many persons. And so, it is good to consider the response of God, the way in which God has compassion on His people.

 Note that the cry of the suffering person to God is as old as sin itself. Note also that God’s response to our cry is often – from our limited perspective – delayed. God encourages us in the wait via the Scriptures: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Ps 90:4). But He also makes us wait, and some become angry and frustrated and even reject God because of it. How is it that God would allow this? How is it that God wouldn’t remove this? How? 

We can answer the question in many ways, intellectually. We can say that our suffering is just. We deserve it because of our sin. We can say that we are temporal beings, and it takes time to work things out; we grow in experience and knowledge as we suffer through many trials. These answers are not wrong, but we should consider one more. St. Peter says, “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pt 3:9).

In other words, God’s response to our cry to Him is not directed towards earthly comfort. In fact, God doesn’t promise us earthly comfort. God doesn’t promise an easy life, free of suffering and pain. Instead, He says things like, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). Following Jesus requires that we prepare ourselves for hardship. That hardship is not always persecution (hard or soft) from those who reject the Gospel. Sometimes – oftentimes – that hardship takes the form of the usual difficulties in life.

God’s compassion, then, focuses on our salvation, because “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk 8:36). This truth, however, does not mean that God looks upon our suffering in a callous manner, as if He were forcing us through a meatgrinder and saying, “It’s for your own good!” Rather, God’s compassion for us means He suffers with us. We are, after all, members of His Body, and when “one member [of the Body] suffers, all suffer together” (1 Cor 12:26). God showed His freedom from being influenced by suffering when He went to the Cross for us. Christ maintained His fidelity to the Father in the midst of the suffering, and His compassion for us enables us to do the same.

Therefore, God can allow and make use of suffering in this life as well as blessings and comforts, etc. – all for our sake, all for the sake of our salvation. Our compassion, then, must be directed similarly. Compassion cannot be false – so focused on removing suffering in this life that we fail to call others to the glories of Heaven. Nor can calling others to the glories of Heaven result in a callousness that forgets the plight of our neighbor. Often, our goodness to our neighbor in relieving their suffering can be (must be!) a witness to the charity of Christ. In all of our compassionate interactions, then – words and works – let the Name of Jesus shine forth! Let them be done in His Name and for His glory, that all “may see your good works and give glory to your Heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16). We can never forget that the greatest gift we can give to another is not food or drink or shelter or clothing – though these are often extremely necessary – but Christ Himself. Take His compassion for you as a model (see the Parable of the Good Samaritan), and “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).

In Christ,

Fr. Christensen