Moving up toward compassion

Putting readings together for Wednesday testimony meetings at the church I attend has been a very interesting experience - which I figured it would be! I tend to think about a particular idea and go into researching possible Bible and Science and Health passages for it thinking there will be some particular focus, theme, thread, or what have you. So often, by the time it is all done, it is sooo different from what I expected it would be like. And that's certainly the key hear - what "I" expected. While I'm gathering passages, I try to keep asking, "Okay, Father, what do you want in here? What ideas do you want shared?" And so, hopefully!, what comes out is much less me-centered and much more God-centered messages.

By the time I've read and reworked and reordered and prayed, I have been kind of amazed at the result. Even when I am sitting there on a Wednesday evening with meeting attendees, I have been surprised at the threads and themes that start to stand out. Things I hadn't seen before, and usually I've read these passages together a couple of times!

So it was in last week's set of readings on brotherly love. As I read the collection to the group Wednesday night and have thought about them since, "brotherly love" seems to so barely scrape the surface of what was in there - and there was so much after all, at least that I am seeing. But one thing that has really popped out at me and I have been praying about more these last few days is the concept of compassion. This word and similar words seemed to keep coming up in both the Bible and Science and Health passages selected. And how often it is used in the New Testament in describing Jesus' actions. You know some of them, "he was moved with compassion ..." and then there is some result, some action. He responded by teaching, feeding, healing. Always some action came from that compassion. Here are some examples, with their related story: Matt 14:14, Matt 15:32, Matt 20:34, Mark 1:41, Mark 6:34, Luke 7:13. There are more.

I'd never really thought deeply about this word until last summer when I was talking with a friend who was in quite a bit of pain from a debility in arm motion and wanted some help to find relief. As we talked a bit, she mentioned some issues she was facing in relation to her mother who was also in a lot of pain from some illness. My friend was feeling frustrated as her mother was so uncomfortable and wasn't really doing anything to find relief or healing. This was causing some flare ups when they were together. My friend said that she really was trying to be sympathetic with her mother; she does love her after all. She just wanted her to really dedicate herself to a form of treatment and stick to it and find help and healing. Who wouldn't want that for their mother, or anyone!

That word "sympathy" really stuck out to me when we talked (she used it a few times). And I thought about some of those examples from the Bible showing Jesus "compassion" with others. I wanted to know more, know if there really was a or what the difference is between sympathy and compassion. And so, being a perpetual student, I went to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster online defines "sympathy" as in part: "inclination to think or feel alike : emotional or intellectual accord" and it defines "compassion" as: "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it." Ah! I thought - there's the key, "desire to alleviate it." Not just sinking down into the same sad thought as another, feeling their pain, simply "sympathy," but acknowledging someone's need and wanting to lift the person or situation up. And Jesus did that over and over (and so did his disciples). [Interesting to me, too, that "patient" is part of the root word for compassion. That's probably a whole other thought to wander with!] And that's really what my friend wanted to do for her mother - not feel her pain, but lift her out of it.

I think this passage from Science and Health relates to this idea and describes how we can all express this type of helping and healing compassion:

365:7-24
"The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring; but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common sense and common humanity are disregarded, what mental quality remains, with which to evoke healing from the outstretched arm of righteousness?

"If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Magdalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to practise scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual intent. "

So, it seemed to me that we need to do more than just feel for others, we need to want to alleviate the situation, to raise the thought of that person to a higher, better understanding of divine Love that does help and heal. We are much better helpers ourselves if we can do that than just feeling sorry for someone. That's where I want to go, for sure! After I shared this distinction with my friend and we'd talked some about just showering her mother with Love - loving thoughts, loving deeds, no reaction to her mother's pain but compassion for her, my friend was able feel peace in her relation with her mother in the next days as she strove to live this idea, and, a few days later, she had relief from the debility and pain she was experiencing.

I was glad for the reminder of this better understanding of Jesus' actions and the importance of compassion those Wednesday readings brought me. And I know there is so much more to this idea - to learn and live! And I'm sure there will be more on this concept later - so many other aspects buzzing around in my thought these last days. :)