Living the Virtuous Life Part 3: Compassion

RFIS Retreat Talk #3

Compassion

Virtues abound among the human race because God made us with the capability of doing great things and being amazing people.  In my previous 2 blogs I have talked about the virtues of truth and self-discipline and there are so many others such as perseverance, courage, loyalty, responsibility and nobility.  These are ones that you can really sink your teeth into.  Ones that seem, if I may...masculine.  Not macho or full of boyish bravado, but masculine in the best sense of the word.  These are the virtues that you’d experience in war or in a rescue.  Think of the middle ages, a popular movie genre these days, where deeds were done with bravery and uncommon valor.

But these are all incomplete without the more feminine virtues of loveliness, praiseworthiness and compassion.  In other words, we will fail to be virtuous people if we don’t pursue these as well.  

And the opposite is true:  You may not think of yourself as a courageous or particularly loyal or noble person, but I believe these virtues are available to us if we set out with a pure heart and desire to serve God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  And I believe they will look different on every person.

Also, there’s no way any one of us has all the virtues that a person could have, so the benefit of the body of Christ is that we compliment one another by having and pursuing virtues that God puts on our heart.  The body of Christ represents the one man, the God-man, the Messiah, the Son of Man, our Savior, our Lord, Jesus who embodied all the virtues and we are called to emulate Him.

So, with that being said, I would like to discuss the virtue of compassion.  For being a purveyor of truth or one who excels in self-discipline or is known as the most courageous person who ever lived is incomplete if compassion is not practiced alongside.  Compassion represents a certain tenderness.  A willingness to put oneself in the place of another.  Below I will list several points which ought to be considered:

1. Compassion requires an other-centered point of view

We are naturally selfish people.   If we’re not thinking, when asked to donate clothes to the poor, we choose clothes that we don’t like or wear anymore rather than our favorites.

When we’re at the airport and we know the plane is overbooked and we see passengers on standby...we still walk by them and take our seat.  We only give up our seat when an incentive is offered for a free ticket on another date as well as a guarantee that we will be boarded on the next flight.

Matthew 9:35-36 states, “When he saw the crowds, he had... compassion.”  Not, “When he saw the crowds, he sighed and said, ‘Again, when will these people learn...I’m tired...I can’t help everyone.”

But we have examples of the disciples doing this very thing:

Matthew 14:15 says “This is a remote place and it’s already getting late.  Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”  

Jesus responds by saying, “You give them something to eat.”

My point is that it takes work to be other-centered.  It takes practice to remind ourselves to get outside of our own heads.  And it takes allegiance to someone who is able to help us do this.

2. It requires preparation

We cannot expect to be compassionate people if we are not consciously denying ourselves on a daily basis.  Most of us will probably not respond appropriately in the moment. We see someone in need and it takes us by surprise. 

 

We can read that Jesus prayed each day early in the morning before it was light.  If the Son of God required daily time in prayer in order to handle of the stress of the day, surely you and I need to do the same.  In Mark 1 we see that a period of prayer occurred just before Jesus healed a leper.  

3. Compassion means to be willing to do for another what we had not planned to do with time that we had not allotted.

-How flexible are we?  Are people more important than our schedule and events?  Some of us have our days mapped out to the very minute and any interruption throws us.  Others kind of go with the flow, but each kind of person needs to think: “What would I do if my I am called upon to to exercise compassion to another?”

The Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25ff is a great example of people and their priorities.

4. Compassion requires action.  It’s not just sympathy.

Here’s the dictionary definition: Compassion is an emotion that is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another; to show special kindness to those who suffer. Compassion essentially arises through empathy, and is often characterized through actions, wherein a person acting with compassion will seek to aid those they feel compassionate for.

I believe sometimes that action is just our presence.  In John 11 we find Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ death.    

There may be times that our exercise of compassion may look different from someone else’s.  Sometimes our act of compassion may look foolish and reckless - we have to get to school or work or take a test or play in a sports match and yet there’s a man on the street who needs to be taken to the hospital...which can be dangerous.  What do we do?  So, needless to say there are certain risks involved.

5. Benefits “Why do it?”
Why develop compassion in your life? Well, there are scientific studies that suggest there are physical benefits to practicing compassion — people who practice it produce 100 percent more DHEA, which is a hormone that counteracts the aging process, and 23 percent less cortisol — the “stress hormone.”  There you go!

I have no problem looking at the benefits of a practice that looks like it ought to be completely other-centered.  Even the Christian life has benefits.  We are reminded that self-denial and taking up our cross is really good for us. There are benefits.  Fantastic benefits: eternal life, peace, purpose, friends from all over the world(I’m referencing my experience with Wycliffe), and most importantly a relationship with the creator of the world.

If we are indeed made in God’s image - if He is our creator - if He designed us to operate in a particular way - if He demonstrated to us how to be compassionate when He was on earth - then doesn’t it make sense that when we mimic His behavior that we might feel a satisfaction that goes beyond the satisfaction that doing what feels good in the moment can bring?

6. Lastly, there are limits to compassion

-There is only one Messiah.  Only one man could save everyone

-Have there been times when you wish you could have done more?  Times when in a selfish moment you refuse to help...only later to regret it?

-What do I do with those feelings?  Is it better to have those feelings than no feelings at all?

Finally, we need to ask, “What is the opposite of compassion?”

Is it cruelty, violence, being unkind?  I believe it’s apathy.  Doing nothing is a horrible crime.  It causes us to live with regret, but maybe that regret will drive us to be different next time.