Compassion and Mercy
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scripture Readings:
* Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-25
* 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
* Mark 5:21-43
Compassion and Mercy
Today we see Jesus healing and raising from the dead. He is showing mercy to others. He is showing compassion to others.
We are asked to practise compassion towards others. To enter into another's suffering in such a way that we walk with one another. This requires that we listen to another's life in such a way that we begin to understand that person's pain from the inside. That's not an easy thing to do. It requires that we give up our own notions about what the other is going through and really listen to the unique story of that person. It's easy to pretend that we understand what is happening in another's life and to give some cheap words that seem to say we are sorry.
Always in the Scripture, when the word "chesed" is used, the idea of empathy is included. Not sympathy, but empathy. Sympathy is simply feeling sorry for another person. Empathy is the experience of identifying with the other Person's situation, of becoming a part of it, of literally feeling it. Instead of the "how are you?" we ask each other all the time, the question becomes "What are you going through?" The Gospel writers went out of their way, in certain passages, to point out that Jesus had this kind of empathy. He met a crowd on the shore and He had compassion for them because they looked like sheep without a shepherd. And so He healed their sick and gave them bread to eat there in the wilderness. He had compassion. He felt with them. Or the two blind men outside the City of Jericho, crying out, :Lord have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us." And, again Jesus is "moved with compassion."
A man was on a business trip and stayed in a hotel that had a bug problem. He complained about the bugs to the management, and later received a letter of response to his complaint. Signed by the President of the hotel chain, it said:
We are humiliated that a man of your integrity, a man of your reputation, a man of your importance in the community should have had this experience in one of our hotels.
This made the man feel somewhat better about the situation but, as he was folding the letter to put it away he noticed a little piece of paper at the bottom of the envelope. It read, "Send this guy the 'Bug Letter'."
Unfortunately, this is what we try to do to other people. Send them the bug letter. Send them the form letter. Give them the old cliches. Ask them "How are you?" without really caring one way or the other.
Once you have felt, once you have identified with, once you have been there, then you act! Everytime the word "chesed" is used in the New Testament, it is in connection with something Jesus is doing. It's an act of God. "Mercy" in the Bible is always an action word. "Blessed are the merciful!"
Compassion connects us with others in a very deep way because it is the actual sharing of life with another person.
"I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance." 2Cor:8
This passage points out to us that we are asked to give of what we have - material things are mentioned here - so that others may have what they need. But that we are not to put ourselves into a position where we don't have enough to live on - Paul talks about a fair balance being established. Perhaps this also applies in the case of the mercy that we are to give to others. We are asked to give what we can, but not to burn ourselves out by giving what we are unable to give. Sometimes we overestimate what we can do for others and we give so much that we begin to suffer. This may happen even in terms of the work we do - sometimes we work too much so that others may benefit, but we find ourselves sick and exhausted in the long run and discover that our lives are out of balance. We have given so much that we didn't know where to stop and then we find we can give no longer. This can come from a misunderstanding of the mercy we are asked to show to others. Even in such a beautiful thing as loving others we have to admit that we are not God - that we have a limit and are not able to do all that we wanted to do. That may be one of the hard lessons we have to learn from life itself.