Link to today's readings
Jeremiah 23:1-6 + Psalm 23: 1-6 + Ephesians 2: 13-18 + Mark 6:30 - 34
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Delivered with Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma
It does not seem fair. Jesus and his apostles cross over to the other side of the lake to escape the crowds, but the people’s feet are faster than their oars. Jesus and the apostles seek a little peace and quiet, time to rest and recuperate, but when they disembark a vast crowd awaits them.
Instead of sending all these people away, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, teaches them about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, and then later he will feed them by the miracle of the multiplication of loaves. Jesus finds energy in compassion, true rest by giving himself to those who hunger for his love.
The English word, “pity,” used in today’s Gospel, does not accurately convey what moves Jesus’ heart when he sees this vast crowd who have raced around the lake to find him. The literary meaning of the original Greek text is better captured by the word, “compassion.”
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word “racham” is the root word for the English word “compassion,” and brings in an even deeper level of meaning. “Racham” refers to a woman’s womb. A mother has a very unique relationship with the child of her womb of love and care, that does not end even when that child grows into an adult. The Biblical authors see a correlation here in the way God cares for those whom God has given the breath of life. In Psalm 103, the Psalmist uses this same term, the root of “racham,” to describe God’s love in the person of a child’s father: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord does on those who revere him.”
By raising children and making daily sacrifices of love, a parent know what compassion is, as a parent suffers with their child through difficult, painful moments, while always remaining their mother or their father, regardless of the child’s age.
Thus, for Jesus to have “compassion” on the crowd gives us a clue as to what energizes him and is meant to energize us. The word “pity” conveys separateness, a looking down upon the other, a feeling sorry for the other—to say to another, “you poor thing.” Compassion is something totally different, for compassion flows from a felt “sameness,” a “oneness” with the other in their suffering and pain.
When we stand over someone with pity, it takes a lot of energy to leave our “world” and enter their world. We cannot find rest in such a relationship, but rather find it to be hard work. Compassion, however, is different. When a parent sees their child suffering, they act immediately with compassion---they find a source of strength and love they did not know was there. Parents who stay by their children in the hospital for days on end do so out of the deep well of compassion, as do parents who give of themselves daily to their children in the normal sacrifices of love.
There are still those times when parents can feel worn out by the demands that loving their children places upon them, but almost all parents would say that when they have a child, they discover a vast reservoir of love within them that was not there before. They are energized to be compassionate toward their child, to endure with their child whatever challenge may come. They do not feel separate from their child, but rather one with them, and this makes all the difference when it comes to loving compassionately.
Jesus comes to reveal his heavenly Father and ours, the Parent of all Creation. Jesus is the concrete manifestation in the flesh of the Heavenly Father’s love for the world. He loves others through the eyes of compassion and the deeds of compassion. Jesus does not separate himself from the suffering of the world, but reaches out to touch the leper and the mute, to embrace those paralyzed physically and those whose hearts are frozen by hurt. He is Compassion enfleshed, and in his flesh he manifests the compassion of God toward every creature that God has created.
The culture in which we live has become less and less compassionate, because it emphasizes “difference” over “sameness.” We are taught from a young age to discover and develop what sets us apart from others, to focus on what makes us special, to differentiate ourselves from the masses out there. We are told this is the way to be noticed, to get the best job, to be successful. But it is not the way of compassion, it is not the way of Jesus, it is not the way to true rest. Now this does not mean that we should not develop our own unique talents and use them for the glory of God, but when we begin to believe we are different from others, better than others, entitled to special treatment, then we have lost our way. And this way eventually drains us of life, because it takes too much energy to be who we are not, instead of resting in our unity with all the human family and living with compassion toward ourselves and others.
Living a life of compassion opens our eyes to see how we are all connected. Bud Welch discovered this truth when he went to visit the father of Timothy McVeigh. Bud’s beloved daughter, Julie, died at the hands of Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building, and Bud, like other relatives of victims, wanted McVeigh to suffer and die. But Bud had a divine inspiration to visit the father of this mass murderer, and after doing so, Bud came to the realization that Mr. McVeigh was just like Bud---both of them fathers who loved their children no matter what. In this oneness with another father, Bud suddenly realized that to kill Timothy McVeigh would result in the breaking of another father’s heart. Bud Welch saw clearly how this was not the answer to his own pain and would only create more pain. Thus, Bud Welch chose the way of Compassion by becoming an advocate for life and speaking against the death penalty.
This mission of Jesus, which he confers upon the Apostles, and upon all of us who are filled with His Spirit, is to bring all Creation back into union with the Creator and Father of all. All that Jesus does, and all that we who follow him are meant to do, is to remind others that there is one Source of Life, the Father of all, and when we rest in the Father’s love, we discover the energy to love others as our brothers and sisters. As Martin Luther King puts it, “We must live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.” The Father and Creator of all breathes into each of us the breath of life, and sustains us each day with a Father’s care, providing us with our daily bread. Because we have the same Father, we are sisters and brothers to one another, no matter how different we may look like on the outside. Beneath our skin we all have the same color of blood running through our veins and we are all shaped by the same creative hand. We come from One Source, and we all share a common home. Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si”, makes this point clear---everything is connected. We are connected to one another, and we share an unbreakable connection with the Earth which God has given us, not to dominate and to plunder for our pleasure, but to use wisely and well for the benefit of all earth’s creatures. We share a common home, and we must care for it as we care for the home of our own particular families.
Some would say that to love others in such a way, to care for our common home in such a way, is too difficult, too demanding, too challenging. But for we who are empowered by the Spirit of the Risen Christ, who by the power of his resurrection initiated a new Creation, we know that living a life of Compassion is possible.
Here we enter into Communion with one another and with Compassion Himself. Here we are joined to Christ and through his Sacred Heart enter more fully into the embrace of the Father. In this Holy Sacrament, we are filled with divine energy to love as Christ loves. In Him and with Him and through Him we find true rest.
Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi
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