Monday, May 31, 2010

Sermon for May 30 - What is Compassion?

In a nutshell, the willingness to feel someone else's pain. Yeah, OK, how many of us are willing to do that? Hell, I don't want to feel my own pain much less someone else's. This of course bodes ill for the world. With so much pain to go around, how do we go about alleviating it through means that are not chemical or iPhonic related? With so much pain to go around, is it any wonder that most of us are addicted to something like alcohol or nicotine or just about anything that allows us to escape that pain?

Still.

Does the willingness to feel someone else's pain actually help that person? And here the good reverend insisted on a hard and resounding YES! On the condition that said willingness go beyond mere words. "Oh, I feel your pain!" and "You must be going through hell!" just aren't going to cut it. Words are cheap. The only real words are actions. Compassion has to be able to transform suffering. At the same time, we have to take responsibility for our own lives, respecting the lives we've been given.

How are you going to be an agent of life and love to someone this week?

5 comments:

OlyQueerKid said...

I'm hoping this doesn't sound as selfish on paper as it does in my head.

but...

Shouldn't we learn to love and feel compassion for ourselves first? Empathy is such a huge part of compassion. The ability to feel WITH someone instead of just feeling sorry FOR them.

the way I see it, how can we be expected to love others if we can't love ourselves?

J.T. said...

I don't think what you're saying is selfish at all. I think the danger is that we love only ourselves and don't really care much about others. We certainly live in a day when it's very easy to think it's all about me, me, me. Of course we have to love ourselves. I would hope that we'd remember to get past ourselves as well.

pri said...

good writing

Unknown said...

I sure am, Thanks for the inspiration.
I hope you get well and soon

J.T. said...

Thank you manthy for your concern! I am truly grateful for it. I hope you are doing well!