Compassion that heals
By John Park, Times Colonist, January 24, 2013.Compassion is an aspect of all major faiths. It proceeds from the so-called Golden Rule that is central to these faiths, that of “doing unto others as we would have others do unto us.” Recently, an important book by Karen Armstrong, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, has helped to energize a worldwide movement, culminating in the “Charter for Compassion.”
Compassion as variously defined is an active desire to alleviate the sufferings of others; but unlike empathy, it often takes form in action. I think the most effective form of compassion recognizes where an individual is at in life, and lifts him or her up to something higher.
A good example is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible. As Jesus explains in this story, a travelling man is waylaid by robbers, and left half dead. Two individuals, one a priest and one a Levite, come across this man. One passes by on the other side, and one comes and looks at him and then goes on his way. However, a Samaritan – despite the hostility between Jews and Samaritans at that time – goes over to where he is, and takes care of him, providing for all his needs. Jesus brings up this parable in response to the question by a lawyer, “Who is my neighbor?”
What is neat about this parable is that the Samaritan is not shown to have any preconceptions about the victim. As well, he didn’t consider the cost of his help, as brought out later in the story. He simply knew where the person was at and what was required of himself, and he rose to the occasion.
Jesus presented a standard for interaction among humans. But considering the works he accomplished in healing the sick and saving those who had strayed morally, there must have been something more in his brand of compassion than simply meeting human needs, as presented in the Good Samaritan.
Prior to the parable, Jesus approved an answer by the lawyer as to how to attain eternal life – it was essentially to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. I think this holds the key to a higher sense of compassion that not merely satisfies human needs but also physically and spiritually heals an individual and his or her situation. I think he had a profound sense of love that literally saw through the human conditions and embraced the individual where they truly were as loved children of God, who from a Christian’s point of view is Love itself. In other words, he saw individuals as God saw them as His precious expression. And it was this view that corrected, without judgment or criticism, the human view of the situation and effected the healing.
I think that compassion is natural and shared by all living things in one degree or another. It hints at a unity of all life that we should share that fellow feeling in caring for our neighbor – even our enemy – and caring for nature in its varied forms.
John Park was a Geophysicist with the federal government in the Earth Physics Branch and the Geological Survey for 30 years. A life-long Christian Scientist, he is now a Christian Science practitioner of spiritual healing. He is also a chaplain at the University of Victoria.
” Nurturing Healthy Communities: Compassion and Action ” is a conference that is being held at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, starting this evening with a dinner and Guest Speaker Rev. Alisdair Smith. You can find more information on this conference HERE
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