EDGE: March 1
Compassion: Reaching out to those who are considered outcasts
OBJECTIVE: To connect our belief in human dignity with our call to reach out to those considered outcasts.
OVERVIEW: Our call to see all human life as having dignity given to us by God extends to our treatment of others.
When we see someone else hurting or someone that does not fit in, we typically have an emotional response of understanding their pain. This response is called empathy. We may have been through a similar situation and can “feel” what someone else may be feeling – we can put ourselves in their position. However, empathy does not imply sympathy or action for the other person.
Compassion is about standing with another person during his/her pain. The root of compassion means to “suffer with.” It is not about lookin at someone’s circumstances from a distance and feeling sympathy or sorrow. Rather, compassion calls us to action: to stand with someone who is suffering. The Christian life calls us to have compassion with the poor, those suffering body, mind and spirit, the outcast and those who feel beaten down by life. Compassion helps us to stand beside our brothers and sisters and to suffer with them.
In the Gospels we get a clear sense of what it means to be compassionate. In Matthew 15, Jesus sees a crowd of hungry people who have followed him. He says to His disciples, “I have compassion on the crowd…I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” (32). Again in Matthew 20: 35, Jesus has compassion and heals two blind men. Jesus does not go around simply curing anyone He thinks needs healing. Rather, He is compassionate – He enters into the suffering of those in need and brings them physical healing, and more importantly, spiritual healing. Jesus’ ultimate act of compassion was His suffering and death on the cross. Romans 3: 23 reminds us that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” If it were not for His compassion, we would be left to suffer on our own. Jesus became a man so that He could reveal true compasion. He suffers with us to bring us spiritual, physical and mental peace. The Catechism states:
“In its various forms – material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death – human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of fraility and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of orignial sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispenable always and everywhere” (2448).
We are called to be like the Christ – to be moved with compassion and called to action. As we come to see that all humans have dignity because God is our Creator, we are called to have hearts filled with compassion for those in need. Those who are considered outcasts need our compassion just as much as those who suffer physical or mental pain/ anguish. The Catholic social teachings help us to reflet on how we have treated those considered outcasts and be moved with compassion to stand by them as a source of strength and encouragement. Our compassion can help to alleviate their feelings of being pushed aside and ignored.
Summary Challenge (Points to Remember):
1. When we see someone in need, we are called to do more than just feel sorry for him/her.
2. Compassion means that our heart is moved to suffer with those in need and work to alleviate their suffering.
3. Throughout the Gospel, we hear that Jesus was moved with compassion and helped to feed the hungry and heal the sick. It was also because of His compassion for us that He was willing to die on a cross so that we could have true spiritual healing.
4. The Catholic social teachings help us to reflect on how we have treated those who are considered outcasts and to change our attitude so that we can help those in need.
Zechariah 7: 9-10
