Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Isaiah 49:15
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 6:34
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1–2
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Luke 10:30–37, New Living Translation
Compassion literally means “suffer with” (from its Latin origin). It implies empathy, the ability to share in the feelings of someone else as if they were one’s own. This is the art of standing in someone else’s shoes, imaginatively experiencing their point of view.
It has been suggested that a brilliant way to achieve reconciliation in resolving conflict is to have each opposing party argue for the other’s point of view as passionately as if it were his/her own. What a wonderful way that might be of encouraging compassion!
Compassion can also be called sympathy, and technically means the same –
yet sympathy has overtones of mere feeling – crying on each other’s shoulders – whereas compassion implies either taking action to help or exercising restraint in a situation where one has power over another.
O God of righteousness, justice, and power, we thank you humbly for the
compassion you have shown to us. You have stayed your hand when we chose greed and violence; you waited for us to learn better when we chose destruction and indifference. When we were lost in sin, you came to us yourself in Jesus, to teach us, heal us, and show us the way to heaven. Compassionate God, may we be transformed by the renewing of our minds into the likeness of your compassion, until we come to reflect the beauty of Jesus in the time and place in which we live. For we ask it in his holy name; Amen.
