Reconnecting with Compassion
Last week I spoke to you about the journey we are going to take that involves us in rediscovering or discovering for the first time what it is about being Christian that can be or become a gift to ourselves and others. Our first exploration focused on reconnecting with the earth itself. We were asked to think about our relationship as creatures who do not just live on the earth but are of the earth and, as such, connected with all other creatures who walk, swim, fly or otherwise live within this place. We were encouraged to realize that we are not just creations made by God but that our very beings are composed of God. We were also challenged to consider that while we present to the world as male or female, there is within each of us the capacity to experience the other half. Allowing ourselves to be in touch with that other reality of who we are will enable us to more fully engage with our humanity and the humanity of those around us. Through this engagement we will encounter the sacredness within all life and hopefully come to a deeper and more genuine understanding of what it means to be human and how we can - as people of faith- be a blessing to the world.
On the island of Iona there is a meeting of roads called the Crossroads. It is the only crossroads on Iona. It is the point where east meets west and north meets south. As part of the weekly pilgrimage, it is the place where pilgrims pause to reflect on the critical junctures in their lives seeking direction for which way to turn. The Crossroads is a place where wisdom is sought and so it is fitting that people hear words from the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. In the book of Proverbs we are reminded that Wisdom stands at the crossroads of life (Prov. 8:2). In Ecclesiasticus 15:2 we are reminded that she is like a young lover who yearns for us, longing to be one with us. And if we desire to, we can access the gift of wisdom at every moment of our lives and at every pathway. Wisdom is waiting to lead us into the way of compassion. And so we seek through the gift of wisdom to reconnect with the gift of compassion.
Perhaps we are familiar with the word compassion. For many of us we understand it as standing in solidarity with someone who is suffering, feeling their pain. Newell would like us to go a little deeper. The words compass and compassion share a common root. But the compass he is thinking of is that old compass that so many of us used in geometry to draw circles or determine the distance between two points. A compass began its life as a word to determine the relationship between two points. Compassion is about honouring the relationship between two people or between one group and another, and remembering those who suffer. It is about making a connection between the heart of my being or your being and the heart of another and then following that connection to find the direction that our compassion will lead us.
To guide us in our reconnection with compassion, Newell suggests a three-fold path which he learned from Burmese activist San Suu Kyi. She describes the path of compassion as the courage to see, the courage to feel and the courage to act.
The courage to see is about remembering that human life is infinitely precious. It is about recognizing the value of every human life regardless of where they have been born or the community in which they live. And while there is a capacity in each of us for good and for bad, it is a matter of cultivating a way of seeing that focuses on the preciousness at the heart of the other. It is about growing compassion. And just as nothing else grows without care and attention and nurturing, neither does the ability to be compassionate.
Jesus models this to us often as he notices and allows himself to be conscious of the needs of others – their health, happiness, even their hunger. Through compassion we move from ego-centrism to ex-centrism. We find our true centre not within the limited confines of our own individuality, family or nationhood but within the connections between us. Rather than seeing compassion as a duty or burden, we are encouraged to see compassion as a responsibility we have towards one another. The courage to see the compassionate way can free us from the prison of the ego. To want to bear responsibility for the needs of others is a blessing that frees us from our self-interest. The greatest challenge we face is to see our connection with those who seem different from us, whose lifestyle we cannot understand or who threaten us. The greatest obstacle to compassion is habitual patterns of narrow self-interest.
The courage to feel is about knowing the suffering of those we hold most dear and allowing that same knowledge to allow us to care for those with whom we do not yet feel such an intimate connection. We often hear the words of St. Paul who encourages us to bear one another’s burdens, to cry with those who cry and to laugh with those who laugh but our weeping or our laughing may not reach the depths that the Greek words are meant to evoke. The Greek word that is meant to describe our compassionate response to the suffering of others is about being moved in our guts. Jesus’ compassion for those who suffered loss was one that wrenched his guts. A depth of feeling that touches us in a way that goes deep into our being. We begin to understand that we cannot stand beside the suffering of another and not allow it to reach our inward heart and spirit.
Finally the courage to see and to feel needs to lead to the courage to act – and the courage to act is the hardest part of the path for so many of us. Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Two people saw and felt but did not act. The third saw, felt and acted. The courage to act with compassion means doing something. And for most of us this is the greatest challenge on the path of compassion. We struggle to know how to take what we see and feel and find the appropriate response to the situation. Perhaps we feel that what is causing the suffering of another is greater than we can respond to on our own. And this is why we need to not only see and feel compassionately what is happening in our lives and the lives of those whom we encounter but to share what is happening and seek for the help of others to find an appropriate response. By ourselves we will never change the world but when we open our eyes to see, our hearts to feel and our hands to act, we can make positive changes and become a true blessing to others.
When we act with compassion, even if we perform the simplest of compassionate deeds, we recognize that the unjust wrongs that create suffering in our world are not an indelible feature of this reality. They can be changed. Vaclav Havel, leader of the nonviolent revolution in Czechoslovakia said: “I stopped waiting for the world to improve and exercised my right to intervene in that world” (Newell, p. 27). We will not be able to right every wrong and injustice but we can take responsibility to do what we can by having the courage to see, the courage to feel and the courage to act.
AMEN