Compassion
and Empathy
By
Linda and Richard Eyre
Note: Each week this column provides a short essay on one particular
aspect or facet of the Lord’s personality and character. It
is intended that the reader focus on this facet while partaking
of the sacrament this Sunday. (Click here
to read full introductory column.) This column has been on haitus
for a few weeks while the Eyres were traveling,
and Meridian is proud to resume it this week. Review previous columns
by going to the What
Manner of Man Archive
Just
as we cannot think of Beethoven without thinking of music, we cannot
think of Christ without thinking of love. One of the most
beautiful elements of Christ's love was (and is) his compassion
and empathy. He always sacrificed his own needs for the needs
of others: he always fed the hungry crowds, he always stayed a little longer. The awesomeness
of his true perfection lies more in the good he never failed to
do than in the wrongs he never did.
One
great quality possessed by a great woman we particularly admire
is a particular, beautiful, natural, deep-felt compassion for anyone
small, or weak, or sick, or poor — an instant empathy, a tear-to-the-eye
caring that causes her to reach out, to hold, to help. She is, in
this regard, a true "type" of the Savior. We see
everywhere in Christ this compassion, this empathy, this gentleness,
this "unto the least of these" attitude that teaches more
than words ever could.
Consider
Christ’s love for children — a love that held them, and blessed
them, and that was "much displeased" when they were mistreated
or deliberately kept from him (see Mark 10:13-16). So tender
was his love for little children that it caused him to weep, and
so powerful was the same love that it brought down from heaven "angels
... in the midst of fire."
Consider
the compassion and love he showed for widows (see Luke 4:25-26,
21:3), for beggars (see Luke 16:20), for the poor or oppressed (see
Matthew 11:5; Luke 4:18). Indeed, it is not Christ's love
for certain categories of people that is so overwhelming; it is
his love for all categories of people.
Where
lies complete compassion? Is it in the love of the poor,
the frail, the fatherless? Or is there
an even deeper, even stronger compassion in loving the sinner, even
when the person hurt by the sin is you?
Christ
loved the ignorant sinner enough to forgive and forget and teach
him a better way. And he loved the willful sinner enough to
correct and chasten him with plain, straightforward words.
Christ's
compassion is so boundless that if we will open ourselves fully
to it, it will flow in so deeply that we will run over and drip
our compassion into the lives of others.
Enjoy this contemplation this Sunday during the sacrament
time, and we will see you here next week to consider another aspect
of the Lord's love ... his Magnanimity and Friendship.
© 2005 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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