Ad Dominum

To put the following passage in context, we are reading the story in John’s gospel when Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, has died.

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35)

No exegesis is necessary to highlight the most important element in this passage: Jesus wept. He cried, moved with compassion, as every human being has the capacity to do.

As Christians, Jesus is our model. He lived from birth to death fully human, and there was no emotion that he could not and did not feel. We are called to follow him, to be like him, to do as he did. Most of us have no problem feeling our emotions. Nay, most of us too often let our emotions totally govern our actions, at least when it’s opportune to do so. Anger, jealousy, pride, lust and bitterness many times rule our thoughts and our actions.

What if we also let compassion rule our thoughts and actions?

Could we effect more positive change in the trouble that surrounds us if we acted with compassion instead of self-interest or pride? Could we come up with real solutions for the issues we face if we thought and acted compassionately instead of politically?

If we had compassion for unborn children and their mothers, could we find solutions more effective than engaging ourselves in political melodrama? Could we help to feed the world if we put ourselves in the place of one starving person instead of tightening our purse straps in the name of economy? Could we pay a dollar or two more for products that were produced humanely, weeping with compassion for God’s creatures who are helpless in the hands of greed?

Too many times we substitute a “practical” or “moral” solution for a problem that can be solved with neither, because no compassion can be found within us.

If we cannot put ourselves in the place of another person or creature, we are not really followers of Jesus. Jesus was moved emotionally and physically with compassion for others. If we fail to fully embrace our emotions- all of them- and act compassionately, we, in calling ourselves Christians, fulfill only a psychiatric need for ritual and community and relegate Jesus to the dustbin of hippie, socialist loons.

When we act with compassion, we act with selfless love. Selfless love is the very essence of God, the very essence of Jesus’ life, and the wind of the Holy Spirit of God that moves in this miserable world.

If we cannot weep with Mary and Martha, we cannot say we follow Christ.

Pax et bonum.