Where’s the Compassion?
I’m feeling frustrated by the comments that I see and hear
about suffering in the world.
When we read the news (online, of course), and learn about
atrocities happening in Africa and the Middle East, American soldiers slaying
civilians in Afghanistan, or the future of Iran and Israel, it is easy to
become despondent. I fear for our future when the common dialogue in this
country centers on whether or not we should be the ones pulling the trigger to
end suffering in the world.
We live in a post-9/11 world.
We live in an Age of Information.
We are more than the sum of our stockpiles of weaponry.
Now, I admit, I don’t know all the issues that surround each
country’s particular nightmarish scenario. I am interested in learning how
interreligious dialogue plays a part in the peace process. I don’t have
solutions, but I believe in communication.
More than that, I believe that we have a God that loves the
world, the people in it, and continues to create in a creation that is good. We
have a God that accompanies us in suffering, pain, sickness, isolation,
confusion, and loneliness. We have a God that became incarnate in the world, journeyed
to the cross, and took up the sin and the fear, hate, hurt, and abandonment in
this world, so that we could be free from death and welcomed into the embrace
of a Creator that cares.
God cares that we are killing each other. God cares that
children are dying. God cares enough to suffer as we suffer, and does not
abandon us when we doubt it.
God cares about you when you don’t care about yourself
God cares about you when all you care about is yourself.
We live under the cross of Jesus Christ, and we pray for the
Kingdom of God to be present among us here and now. We are freed from sin and
death. We are free to care about each other. We are freed to love our neighbor
and our enemy at home and abroad.
Yes, bullets kill
terrorists. Only the cross can kill what is truly evil.
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his
sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
Then Jesus said to him,
"Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will
perish by the sword.
Matthew 26:51-52 NRSV
Check this out.
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. --Thomas Merton
