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The
Weight of Compassion
Fr. George Smiga
July 19-20, 2003
Mark
6:30-34
Rabbi
Israel of Risbah tells the story of a wealthy and corrupt
man who lived most of his life thinking only of himself and
not of others. On one particular night, however, when he was
returning home in a cold and wet rain, he looked outside of
his carriage and saw a local farmer who was stuck with his
horses and his wagon in the mud by the side of the road. The
rich man thought to himself, "This is no night for anyone
to be stuck outside." So he uncharacteristically told
his driver to stop, and the two of them got out and hitched
their carriage to the wagon of the farmer and pulled him from
out of the mud. Then they accompanied him home to his hut.
And when the rich man saw the poverty in which the man lived,
he gave him a considerable amount of money that helped him
save his farm and educate his children.
Many years
later the rich man died and came before the eternal tribunal.
God said to him, "Now we must weigh your good deeds against
your bad to see whether you might enter into eternal life."
But when all the sins and crimes of that man were placed on
the scales of justice, they were so overwhelming that it seemed
that there would be no way for his salvation. Then the Angel
of Mercy spoke up and said, "Lord God Almighty, remember
that one night when this man helped the poor farmer who was
stuck at the side of the road. That should be placed on the
scales." God agreed. It was placed on the scales, but
it was certainly not enough to offset all this man's wickedness.
So the Angel of Mercy thought a bit more and said, "I
think it would be fair to also place in this man's favor all
the good that came from that deed: the money that he gave
that saved the man's farm and educated his children, and all
the good that has been able to happen because of that."
God agreed. So that, too, was placed upon the scales. But
again, it was not nearly enough to budge them. The Angel of
Mercy thought a bit more and said, "It was not only this
man that was saved from the side of the road, but also the
horses and the wagon. Perhaps we should put those on the scale
as well.' God nodded favorably. When they were placed on the
scale, it budged just a bit, but still not enough. So one
last time the Angel of Mercy said, "It's only fair to
count in our calculations what this man was saved from. So
I suggest that we put all the waste and the mud out of which
he was pulled on the scales as well." "Absolutely,"
God said. When it was done, the scales moved, and the astonished
rich man entered into his eternal reward.
Nothing
is more important to God than compassion. Compassion is at
the very heart of the Gospel. Jesus shows this clearly today
in our gospel selection. For though he is tired and wants
to get away from everyone, when he sees the vast crowd, he
has compassion on them. In his full humanity he knows their
need, their poverty, their confusion. So he puts his agenda
aside and ministers to them.
Compassion
is at the heart of the Gospel. Compassion is not simply a
feeling. It is a way of looking at life, and it factors into
the choices that we make each day. For on each day we face
a number of choices in which we need to decide between judgment
and compassion. We look at the people that we live with, the
people that we love. We know their faults and neuroses. We
know what is wrong with them. So we need to choose whether
we are going to judge them because they are not the people
we would like them to be or have compassion on them because
we, too, have shortcomings and failures.
We get
behind an elderly person on the freeway, driving ten miles
below the speed limit, and again we have a choice of whether
to lean on the horn and yell something out as we pass or have
compassion. Compassion allows us to understand that here is
a person struggling to stay active and independent, and that
we are likely to face that same struggle sometime in our future.
When we
hear of somebody who is stricken by AIDS, we have the choice
of judgment against that person because of their carelessness
or lifestyle or compassion because we know our own fragility.
We know that one way or another we will have to deal with
disease and sickness in our own life.
As we
watch the evening news and see Iraqis protesting against American
troops in their country, we have the choice of judging them
because they're not thankful for having us remove Saddam Hussein
who was oppressing them or having compassion because we understand
their decades of oppression and poverty and their desire to
self-determine their future.
Compassion
is at the heart of the Gospel. Each day we have a number of
choices between judgment and compassion. Both, of course,
are necessary. There are times when we must make judgments
and live by them. But the call of the Gospel asks us to include
compassion in our choices. Our scriptures reveal to us a God
who is a God of compassion. One way or another our God finds
a way to have mercy prevail. God knows that our judgments,
even good judgments, have the tendency to pull people apart,
whereas compassion has the power of pulling us together. God
knows that the more people in this world who act with compassion,
the more likely it is that we will have a world that understands
each other, a world in which healing and peace become real
and possible.
So the
challenge that comes to us today from the Gospel is to let
compassion be a part of the choices we make every day. In
doing so we will not only be following the example of Jesus;
we will also be making a choice that is the best choice for
our own good. Because compassion spreads its benefits on all
and calls us together. To be people without compassion is
like being like two men sitting in a lifeboat, doing nothing.
They are watching as people at the other end of the lifeboat
are frantically bailing to keep the boat afloat. The one man
says to the other, "Thank God that the hole is not at
our end of the boat."
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