Text: Sr Therese O'Regan at Passionist seminar - Tell the world of God's great Compassion

Sr Therese O'Regan CP gave the following reflection at the Passionist seminar in Minsteracres last week.

Tell the world of God's great Compassion - the heart of our Passionist calling

Introduction

Tell the world of God's great Compassion, How do we do this? I would suggest that it is not so much by eloquent preaching or writing but simply by the way we live with and respond to the people around us and the events that happen in everyday life. That is what Jesus did. Jesus was the human face of God's compassion by the way he lived and the way he died.

It is through the contemplative glimpse of the compassionate face of God reflected in the human face of Jesus that we are touched by a spiritual energy capable of transforming us into persons who radiate the loving compassion of God to others and the whole of creation. (We Walk the Path Together Brian Pierce OP)

How did Jesus live Compassion

What set Jesus apart was his ability to see with the heart. He looked beneath the surface of people's lives and saw their wounds and sorrows; their scars and handicaps; their fears, hopes and longings.

> The people around him looked at the Leper with disgust and saw a rotting body. Jesus looked deeply and saw a lonely human being crying out for acceptance and healing. Mark. 1: 40 -45.

> The Pharisees looked at sinners with eyes full of condemnation, all they saw was their vices. Jesus looked at sinners and saw wounded children of God, potential saints. Mark 2: 15.

> Some people looked at Matthew and saw a tax collector, a sinner who exploits people. Jesus looked at Matthew and saw a man waiting for a call. Matt 9:9

> The teachers of the law looked at ordinary people and saw a crowd of sinners, ignorant of the law of God. Jesus looked at the crowd and saw sheepwithout a shepherd and had compassion on them on more than one occasion. Matt. 9: 36.

> Some people looked at the widow in the Temple, all they saw was a miserable woman making a pathetic donation. Jesus looked at the widow and saw a poor woman making a heroic effort. She gave all she had. Mark 12: 41-44

> Many looked at the thief on the cross and saw a criminal getting what he deservedJesus looked at the thief and saw a man longing for paradise. Luke 23: 40

In the words of Oscar Wilde; Jesus understood the leprosy of the Leper, the darkness of the blind, the fierce misery of those who live for pleasure, the strange poverty of the rich.

Jesus chose compassion as his lifestyle. The core of his message was the unconditional and unrestricted compassion of God. All his actions, his solidarity with the poor and marginalised are motivated by compassion. His death was seen as a supreme act of compassion with suffering humanity.

How did Jesus die

Paul of the Cross saw that love was the central meaning to the suffering of Jesus on the Cross and one of the fruits of that love is compassion. Ronald Rolheiser in his book The Passion and the Cross; says: what the Cross tells us more clearly than any other revelation is that God is utterly non-violent. The passion of Jesus refers to that time in his life where his meaning for us was not defined by what he was doing; his active ministry, but rather by what was being done to him.

When Jesus is sweating blood in the garden and begging the father to spare him having to drink the cup - the real choice he is facing is not will I let myself die or will I invoke divine power to save my life? Rather the choice is how will I die?

Will I die angry, bitter and unforgiving or will I die with a warm forgiving heart? Of course we know how Jesus resolved this drama, how he chose forgiveness.

He did not respond to the violence that surrounded him with violence. He took away the sin of the world by transforming it by taking it inside himself and not giving it back. Jesus took in hatred and gave back love, he took in anger and gave back graciousness, he took in bitterness and gave back warmth, he took in pettiness and gave back compassion, he took in in chaos and gave back peace he took in sin and gave back forgiveness.

Inside all the darkness Jesus remained true to the message that he had preached all his life, namely that love, compassion and forgiveness will ultimately triumph. He died as he had lived.

Mary at the foot of the Cross; disciple of Compassion

Again Roilheiser speaks of Mary standing at the foot of the Cross. What is she doing while she is standing there? On the surface it seems she isn't doing anything at all. She doesn't speak, she doesn't try to stop the crucifixion and she doesn't even protest its unfairness or plead Jesus' innocence. She is mute, seemingly passive, overtly doing nothing. At a deeper level she is doing all that can be done when she is standing under the weight of the Cross. She is holding the tension, standing in strength, refusing to give back in kind and resisting in a deeper way.

In essence what Mary is doing under the Cross was this. She couldn't stop the Crucifixion (there are times when darkness has its hour) but she could stop some of the hatred, bitterness, jealousy, heartlessness and anger by refusing to give it back in kind, by transforming it rather than transmitting it.

Had Mary, in moral outrage began to scream hysterically, shout angrily at those who were crucifying her son she would have been caught up in the same kind of energy as everyone else replicating the very anger and bitterness that caused the crucifixion in the first place

It is not easy not to react especially when faced with a situation like that. That is not passivity, resignation or weakness. It is genuine strength. It is standing under the cross so as to help take away some of its hatred, chaos, bitterness and violence.

Compassionate presence

Thomas Merton states: the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all things - the interconnection of everything on our planet.

Jean Vanier defines compassion as a willingness to bear suffering alongside the grieving person. When a mother has lost her child there is no way of dispelling her grief but we can be there with her, a quiet presence, a support absorbing some of her grief and pain.

During his agony in Gethsemane Jesus showed his need of the three Apostles - could you not watch with me one hour.

Jean Vanier says, and, I can resonate with this, one of the most difficult aspects of compassion (and the reason it is essentially a gift of God) is - in the presence of another person's grief or pain I tend to want to do something to assuage my own anguish. To remain present to that person while doing nothing, like Mary at the foot of the Cross demands a special gift of the Spirit

You and I cannot change the harsh events of daily life. We cannot bring God's healing power on terminal illness or senseless tragedies caused by crazed individuals. But what we can do is be a source of comfort - that does not mean having a lot to say. It is rather being a compassionate presence in the face of tears, anger, and sadness.

Jean Vanier also says that we cannot be compassionate unless we are aware of our own short comings - our brokenness is the wound through the power of God can penetrate our being and transform us.

And do not turn aside from your own pain

your anguish and brokenness

your loneliness and emptiness

by pretending you are strong.

Go within yourself.

Go down the ladder of your own being

until you discover

like a seed

buried in the broken, ploughed earth

of your own vulnerability

the presence of Jesus

the light shining in the darkness

And there offer yourself with Jesus

to the Father

for the life of the world Jean Vanier - A Door of Hope

Path of Compassion our calling Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate Luke 6 :36

As followers of Jesus we are asked not just to admire what he did but to imitate it, to do in our lives what Jesus did, this is how we keep the memory of the Passion alive. We go about our daily lives among our families, communities, people we meet on the street and in our workplaces where there is tension and we become like shock absorbers. We do this whenever we take in hatred, anger, envy, pettiness and bitterness and transmute them and eventually give them back as love, graciousness, blessing, compassion and forgiveness.

There are three interrelated kinds of compassion which are glimpses of God's great compassion.

Fellow feeling - the ability to identify with the suffering of another person because I have suffered something similar = empathy.
It is not uncommon to hear of people who suffer deeply in their own lives experience a spiritual transformation which gives birth to compassion and solidarity towards people all over the world.

Mindful seeing or looking deeply. This goes beyond appearances to recognise the inner worth and value of another human being. This is the awareness that every human being is first and foremost God's child infinitely loveable and precious no matter how distorted or even violent the person may behave at any given moment.

It is the level of compassion which could lead our society to a restorative justice system. What do I mean by that? I suppose I learned that when I lived in Botswana and understood that under traditional tribal law once a person had made restitution the crime was not held against him/her, the slate was wiped clean and the person could re-enter society and continue living a normal life. To my mind that reflects God's compassion and forgiveness. In our society once someone has been in prison they carry the record, the stigma for the rest of their lives

Indignant compassion leads to action in solidarity with people who are suffering from any kind of injustice. We are heartbroken by the myriad ways our one human family and Earth our common home suffer from disconnection, indifference, violence and fear in the face of racism, migration and the climate crisis. Indignant compassion is willing to run the risk of suffering. Solidarity requires a readiness for sacrifice even the ultimate one.

Ways to a compassionate heart

For Pope Francis as for Jesus the transformation of our world, the healing of pain and brokenness, the raising of people to their full dignity will happen when we look at people and our planet with a contemplative gaze and encounter them with love. Daniel O Leary

We see the suffering caused by the destruction of life we try to cultivate compassion and use it as a source of energy for the protection of people, animals, plants and minerals. By trying to cultivate compassion one commits to reorienting ones entire life, heart, mind, body and soul in the direction of compassion.( Thich Nhat Hanh) This is the transformation St. Paul suggests when he speaks of putting on the mind of Christ 1Cor 2: 16

Henri Nouwen speaks of compassionate prayer: One of the most powerful experiences in a life of compassion is the expansion of our hearts into a world embracing space of healing from which no one is excluded. Prayer for others is the very beat of a compassionate heart - to pray for another means to allow their suffering, anxieties, loneliness, their confusion and fears to resound in our own innermost selves.

But in the midst of that experience I realise that compassion is not mine but God's gift to me. I cannot embrace the world but God can. I cannot pray but God can pray in me. When God became as we are (Incarnation), that is when God allowed all of us into his intimate life, it became possible for us to share in his infinite compassion.

In prayer the unprincipled dictator and vicious torturer can no longer remain the object of our fear, hatred, revenge because when we pray we stand at the centre of the great mystery of Divine Compassion.

Dietrich Bonhoffer expressed this with powerful simplicity when he wrote that to pray for others is to give them the same right as we have received, namely to stand before Christ and share in His mercy.

I would like to end with some words from Bishop Desmond Tutu when he visited the Dalai Lama in 2015.

" God, who is forever pouring out God's whole being from all eternity, wants you to flourish. God wants you to be filled with joy and excitement and ever longing to be able to find what is so beautiful in God's creation: the compassion of so many, the caring, the sharing. And God says, Please, my child, help me. Help me to spread love and laughter and joy and compassion. And you know what my child? As you do this - hey presto- you discover joy. Joy which you have not sought, comes as the gift, as almost the rewards for this non-self- regarding caring for others" which is Compassion.

So Let us tell the world of God's great compassion by living the heart of our Passionist calling which is loving compassion.