Compassion

 The ability to walk in the shoes of another requires empathy for the difficulties that another person lives with. This is more than just being distressed at the suffering it is an actual identification with the person who suffers. Thus when we can be distressed by many things then move on to another subject. Empathy allows us to be present to the other for their good. This is an essential part of our humanity, that we can accompany others suffering. 

Yet in itself, we notice how compassion is the next step. This is the scene played out in the Gospel. A blind man cries out for help and the crowd seeks to silence him. His persistence grabs the attention of Jesus and he calls the man to him. The crowd then is healed as well as they call the blind man forward. They seek to encourage the man to have courage and stand up. The man trusts both the call of Jesus and the encouragement of the crowd. He is healed and then follows Jesus along the road.

Similarly, we are called to be healed of our infirmities by a person who can identify with our weaknesses. Jesus calls us each day to come to him not because we have it all together but because we know our own limitations and struggles. Each day as a community we are called to encourage each other to stand up, come to him and be healed. 

The Mystery of the Cross

The mystery of the Cross is brought into sharp relief in the readings for this weekend. We may be familiar with the reality of the Cross in daily life. Suffering seems to be a part of our daily life whenever we turn on the television, surf the net or read our newspapers. There seem to be many instances where people suffer violence from the ravages of war, the reality of how this impacts our own lives and how the images can distress us. Even locally we can become aware of those who need our prayers for healing, those who wrestle with division in their own homes and how inner conflict can isolate us from each other. There seems to be so much that can overwhelm us that the burden can seem impossible to bear.

Yet amid so much suffering  we meet the suffering servant, Jesus who seeks to take what seems to crush us upon himself. This can confuse us as we seek to make sense of our own anguish and navigate paths through this suffering. As we gaze upon the Cross our attention is often drawn to the cross that causes the suffering or the person who suffers. There is a sense of compassion and bewilderment at times about why a good man needs to suffer. Yet is the person who suffers who helps us to make sense of our own suffering. He does not do this out of duty or obligation but out of a profound outpouring of love and compassion, Jesus accompanies us even in our suffering and does not abandon us. He seeks to show us how mercy can be found at the time of our greatest need. 

This evangelisation of others helps us to encounter a person who will not abandon us but allow us to witness to holiness,mercy and life. As a Christian people this witness is best lived out when we seek to alleviate suffering and address the causes of suffering out of love and compassion. Our community grows together as we gather, especially at times when we challenged by the reality of suffering. We can become a people of God who are healed through the Sacrament of Anointing, reconciled through the Sacrament of Penance and nourished through our sharing of the Eucharist at Mass. God does not abandon us but offers his very self so that we can be healed.

In this we witness the suffering servant who came to serve not be served. Who witnesses to the compassion of Christ who offers his very self to us. This is where we acknowledge how all the baptized are called to preach all the Gospel to all the people all the time. 

Wisdom, Discernment and Providence

 How do we trust everything to God? This is not just an abandonment of responsibility for our actions but rather a considered approach to the way we live our lives. We are called to be people who are prayerfully attentive to the situation in which we live. This is noticing how we are present in the world in which we live while also considering how we listen to the voice of God. This incarnate way of living centres the way we see things to be in harmony with God's creative nature which is ever ancient and ever new. We are people who not only hear the Word of God but seek to allow that Word to be written upon our hearts. This allows us to become people who seek to live that Word in whatever environment we are called to live.

Our discernment seeks for us to think, feel and sense ourselves into what brings all things before God daily. The first step in our prayer is that we think about many things and we need to sift them to distinguish the dross from the pearl. This process allows us to not only think about the pearl but to allow all our senses to become curious about what we are called to hold on to. This application of the sense helps us to appreciate how the Word engages us practically and not just theoretically. It allows the Word to sink deeper into us. Allowing us to notice how it becomes one with us there can be a sense of nourishment that is not just based on our hunger but by a deeper encounter with what truly fills us. This allows us to notice how through this simple pattern of prayer we can start to look at our lives differently and attend to things more readily.

By allowing this to become a daily practice we trust to rely on what comes to hand rather than fretting about the future or being anchored in the past. There is a growing confidence that God can help us to be present in this moment and this place. Even when we have difficult choices to make or the circumstances constrict us with possibilities there can be a clearer understanding of the next obvious step. This is not blind faith but a disposition that we can be guided to trust that God will show us the way. 

What makes us teachable

 We live in an age where we know much about life but struggle to live an integration of that life. Every day we can be bombarded with self-help programs to discover who we are called to become by doing things differently. There can often be a discomfort inside ourselves that this becomes overly complex and we look for a way that is simple and achievable in our own lives. Nowhere is this felt more often than in relationships, particularly where the focus is on marriage. The pressure that people can feel is that they need to be perfect rather than transformed. This can often be the tension that can develop where we expect someone to be different from who they are. When we look back on the Saints who have guided us through the week I believe they can give us some hints about how to develop a relationship founded on Christ.

St Jerome reminds us that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. I believe this is not just about reading scripture but allowing us to be absorbed by scripture into the heart of Christ. This is the starting point for all prayer as it seeks to discover how God faithfully communicates with us through the written word. This written word is not just to be written on the page but is to be written on our hearts.

St Therese of Lisieux in reading through the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians in Chapters 12 and 13 discovered that her vocation was to love rather than undertaking a particular role or function. This is not a self-serving love that sought to obtain special preference for herself but a self-giving love that sought unconditional love for the good of the other. This allows us a vision that sees ourselves encountering the love of God through our everyday encounters with each other.

The Guardian Angels remind us that in each sacrament of life both in Marriage and Priesthood there is a guardian angel and an empowering angel. This guides us to safeguard what brings life to the other while also encouraging us to witness God's love in daily life. They help us to not just focus on our own needs but on how we encounter others and become detectives of grace.

The last word probably belongs to St Francis of Assisi which is best proclaimed in his prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness,  joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Especially in our current age and as we prepare for the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday we are called to be people who pray and fast for each other and for our world. To seek the peace of God that is at the heart of all creation.