Be Compassionate!

Matthew 9:32-38

As the men were leaving, some people brought to Jesus a man who could not talk because he had a demon. But as soon as the demon was driven out, the man started talking, and everyone was amazed. “We have never seen anything like this in Israel!” they exclaimed. But the Pharisees said, “It is the chief of the demons who gives Jesus the power to drive out demons.” Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness. As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with compassion for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. So he said to his disciples, “The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest.”

Food for thought!

There are few passages which show better than this the impossibility of an attitude of neutrality towards Jesus. No one can stay neutral before Jesus; or we love him or we hate; or we take him serious or we ignore him. In today's Gospel we have the picture of two reactions to him. The attitude of the crowds was amazed wonder: “We have never seen anything like this in Israel!” The attitude of the Pharisees was virulent hatred: “It is the chief of the demons who gives Jesus the power to drive out demons.” They said.

It must always remain true that what the eye sees depends upon what the heart feels. If you like someone you will like what that person does; if you hate someone you will deslike everything that person does, even the good. You will be like the Pharisees. 

We cannot stay indifferent before Jesus, but Jesus too cannot stay indifferent when he sees us. The gospel says, When He saw the throngs, He was moved with compassion. Compassion! When that word is used, most of us don’t have any idea at all what it means. Some people think of weakness when they think of compassionate people. You see, we live in a compassion-less world. This is what makes the harvest plentiful, and the labourers few. Most people don't care what happens to others! They do not possess compassion. 

In fact, I would venture to say that most people don’t even know what it means to have compassion!  The word compassion, as it is used in the Bible means, “To be moved inwardly; to yearn with tender mercy, affection, pity and empathy.” It refers to the deepest possible feelings. The phrase, “moved with compassion” means to be moved in the “inner organs”. It has the same idea as our modern expression, “From the bottom of my heart.”

Someone has defined compassion as “Sympathy coupled with a desire to help.” Sympathy means “The capacity to share feelings, to enter into the same feelings, to feel the same thing”. So, compassion is “sharing the feelings of others and possessing a desire to help them in their trouble.” This is what Christ did to so many people; this is what Christians do: be compassionate, by seeing people through the eyes of Jesus.

Stephen Covey tells of an unusual experience on the New York subway. While people were sitting quietly in the car, a man entered with his noisy and rambunctious children. The man sat down and closed his eyes as though he was oblivious to his rowdy children. The once quiet subway car was now a disturbing place of chaos. The children's inappropriate behaviour was obvious to everyone except their father. Finally, Covey confronted the man about his children. The man opened his eyes and evaluated the situation as if he were unaware of all that had transpired: "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital, where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either." Compassion starts when we begin to understand the hurts of others.