The Need for the Compassionate Heart
Luke 3:7-18
The compassionate heart is most needed in the world today. I was told by a professor in Pastoral care when I was in theological college that the compassionate heart was the most important thing that we could have in our ministry. Over the years I have found that to be true for anyone’s ministry both for lay people and clergy. There are many skills that we use in doing our work but it is the compassionate heart that must be exercised day by day and in all circumstances. As a parish priest and as an Addictions Counselor for many years, a great many people flash before my eyes:
People desperately in the grips of something that they couldn’t understand, and couldn’t be freed from on their own;
People who were angry and didn’t know how to deal with their anger;
People who were afraid , not knowing what to do with their fear;
People who were lonely, looking for someone to communicate with on a deeper level that talking about the high cost of vegetables and saying unkind things about the neighbours;
People who were confused, needing to sort things our, needing to make decisions;
People needed someone to listen to them, needing someone to love them, needing someone to care.
Sometimes people’s needs are overwhelming. One thing we learn of Jesus’ life was that it was one of compassion. We see that compassionate heart being exercised throughout the Gospels. That is one of the characteristics that stuck in the memory of his followers. We find it summed up in one of the statement that Mark makes in describing in Jesus’ ministry
“As he (Jesus) went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34)
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In today’s Gospel, Luke gives us picture of John the Baptist preaching in the desert and confronting many of the people who had come to hear him and be baptized by him – some even coming to criticize him. The Baptist realized that he was on the threshold of a new era to be ushered in by one greater than him, the one who was to be called the Christ. So he reminded them that his baptism was one of repentance, a change in direction of their lives, a change to meet the coming age, a change from just thinking of themselves. They had to think of others and what how their lives were affecting others. ” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ Another words live by the Golden rule. “Do unto others as you would have done unto you” and “Don’t do unto others as you would not want done unto you.” They need to move beyond the concerns of fighting for their individual rights and seeking individual power and forgetting the needs of others. Self interest alone breaks the community apart. They need to move beyond that into a compassionate lifestyle. That’s how you prepare for the new age coming upon you.
Just as the people’s needs were overwhelming, We see in the coming of Jesus that his compassion was even greater. And He calls us to have the same compassion in this world. We are to throw our lot with Jesus, the one who loves, the one who shares, the one who gives his whole life for others.
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One of the passages you will hear as we celebrate the Birth of Christ is “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel which means , God is with us”. So we can understand God was in Christ showing his loving compassion to the world. And we are to find as we follow Jesus’ way , “God is with us” . Knowing that God is present in our lives makes all the difference to our world.
Knowing the God is present with us does not means that God makes events that happen to us move in a certain direction like we are chessmen on the chessboard of life. Instead, events happen under their own steam as random as rain or a snowstorm, which means that God is present in them not as their cause but as one who even in the hardest and most hair-raising of them offers us the possibility of new life and healing. I can’t believe that in any way God is the cause of sickness, poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, wars, natural disasters and the whole host of other dreaded things upon the earth. However, God is present in the lives of those who work to relive suffering, those who help to find new life and renewal in the midst of these kind of disasters. God is present in the caring, loving, sharing and giving of our lives for others. Emmanuel – God is with us in our compassionate heart.
Sometimes I have found that I have no strength in myself to help myself, and in faith I rely on the God within to give me the ability to deal with a situation. Other times when I seem to have a peace and a calm in the midst of a storm I realize that it is the hope that is within me – a hope that nothing is able to separate us from the Love of God. Sometimes I have been able to act in Love beyond my own understanding or ability, that can only be explained by the fact that I have been caught up in the love of Christ. This is not just a Christian truth. It is found in all religions and among those who would not call themselves religious. As Albert Schweitzer once said, “There is no higher religion than human service” .
We could all be inspired by the selfless act of Mahatma Ghandi who lost his shoe while exited a train in India. The shoe was well beyond his reach so he removed his other shoe and threw it where the first one had fallen, saying, “Now the poor soul who finds the first one will have a pair that he can wear.” You cannot help but be affected personally by any act that you do for others. An ancient Chinese proverb says that “a little fragrance always clings to the one who gives you roses.”
The world needs compassion. The one who gives compassion also needs to give it. It is where our true happiness is to be found. Also, one of the insights from the the Dalai Lama points out:
Spirituality does not necessarily mean God or Buddha, but just a mental calmness. So the practice of compassion is very, very helpful for a calm mind.
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John the Baptist calls for change in our lives. May this season be one of transformation and renewal, finding the presence of God in our midst . This transformation, or renewal or rebirth as it can be called is NOT A ONCE AND FOR ALL HAPPENING in our lives. It happens whenever we able to recognize and welcome God in the midst of our lives. I am not always aware of God with me, but I know that if I pray continually for an open heart and for the “eyes to see and the ears to hear” that only God’s Spirit can give, something often happens in my life that opens my eyes and ears and I begin again to experience the presence of God in the muck, mire and marvel of my day to day existence. It results in profound change within me and the discovery around me of the pressing needs that requires the response of a compassionate heart.
Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you. (quotation from Steve Mariboli)
This season can be for all of us the realization of the great words of the theologian Paula Tillich in The New Being:
“We want only to show you something we have seen and to tell you something we have heard—-that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation.”
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