Compassion is severely lacking in the world. Indeed, we even talk about compassion fatigue like it is a disease. It seems our ability to show compassion has been waning over the years. Yet, why is compassion so important to humanity? Without it, we would descend into a state of war. The 17th century English philosopher and atheist Thomas Hobbes said, “Life is nasty, brutish, and short.” And that “the natural condition of man is a condition of war.” On the other hand the Dalai Lama stated: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
Compassion requires that we are first able to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, and this become aware of how their situation feels and secondly that now aware of that suffering we must respond appropriately. In some small way, we must help the person alleviate their suffering or at least not make it any worse.
Compassion means to have genuine concern for all of humanity, not just your own tribe. Compassion also means to practise random acts of kindness and expect nothing in return. Compassion means to believe in the dignity, respect, equality, justice of everyone whatever their race religion or political persuasion.
Jesus was the greatest person of compassion. A quick read of the gospels show a man who sought to relieve suffering when relief was sort, a father fearing for his daughter, a Canaanite woman seeking relief for her child and a beggar by the pool. As our calling as Christians is to be more and more like Jesus each and every day, let us not lose sight of our calling to compassion so we may be more like Jesus, loving therefore both God and neighbour.