Compassion

Henri Nouwen on compassion:

"It is important for us to acknowledge this resistance [to suffering] and to recognize that suffering is not something we desire or to which we are attracted. On the contrary, it is something we want to avoid at all cost. Therefore, compassion is not among our most natural responses. We are pain-avoiders and we consider anyone who feels attracted to suffering abnormal, or at least very unusual."

Luke 6:36: "Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate."

We avoid the suffering of others because it's hard. It's messy. We don't understand it, or at least we don't want to understand it. Because it's painful. It may require something of us afterwards. Plus, people take time. And we just don't have time for one another in our busy lives.

Nouwen talks about how compassion is the opposite of competition. Competition esteems us, strokes our ego, and it's when we strive to be better than others. Jesus tells us that we're to consider others better than ourselves, to serve one another, and to love one another. We have freedom-- freedom from the gross animal of greed and the unquenchable desire for more power. We can enter fully and unconditionally into the sufferings of others.

Good word, Mr. Nouwen.