Compassion, the Heart of Jesus in action

The word compassion comes from the Latin, “cum-patire”, “to suffer, to experience with”. “To weep with those who weep” : the first attitude is to communicate with the suffering of the person, to share their state and to meet them where they are at.

Compassion draws its grandeur from the love that produces it

We read in the bible :

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest 
and the first commandment. The second resembles it : 
You must love your neighbour as yourself.” (Mt. 22 : 36-39).

God himself gives a key to compassion.

Above all, to have the personal desire to love him every day with our whole heart and our whole spirit. This is the indispensable condition for advancing along the path of compassion.

At the same time, we need to work at learning how to love ourselves, with and under the sight of God, to accept ourselves as we are, in spite of all the wounds and imperfections of our personality.

Saint Francis De Sales says to us again : “gentleness towards yourself” and “gentleness towards others”.

Humility in action

Compassion obliges us to have humility because it requires a lot of respect, gentleness, patience and freedom.

Moreover one cannot live such love by pretending or by watering down moral truth…(John Paul II “Veritatis Splendor”)

Only the Lord possesses perfect compassion. We cannot exercise it ourselves.

It is necessary to ask Him to accompany us, to inspire our words, our attitudes and the right tone, so that we can look at our brother and sister through God’s eyes. We ought simply to be his instruments and his messengers.

The compassion of Christ

The compassion of Christ towards the ill and his numerous healings of infirmities of every sort (see Mt. 4 : 24) are a brilliant sign of the fact “that God has visited his people” (Lk. 7 : 16) and that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Jesus not only has power to heal, but also to forgive sins (See Mt. 2 : 5-12) : he came to heal the whole person body and soul ; he is the doctor whom the sick need (see Mk. 2 : 17).

His compassion towards all those who suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them.

“’For I was hungry and you gave me food, 
I was thirsty and you gave me drink, 
I was a stranger and you made me welcome, 
lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me,
in prison and you came to see me.’ 

Then the upright will say to him in reply,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, 
or thirsty and give you to drink ? 
When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking in clothes
and clothe you ? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you ?’

And the King will answer, 
‘In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to
one of the least of these brothers of mine, 
you did it to me.’” 

(Mt. 25 : 35-40)

His preferential love for the infirm has not ceased, through the centuries, to awaken in Christians a very special attention towards all those who suffer in their body and in their soul. It is at the origin of their untiring efforts to comfort them. (1998 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1503)

Some places

You can find above a list, which is not exhaustive, of places where it is possible to experience compassion… But wherever you are… be sure that it is possible to experience compassion !