Advent 13
Then Jesus began traveling throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every illness. When he saw the crowds, he was deeply moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
—MATTHEW 9:35-36 (ISV)
Nurse and writer Christie Watson drove eight hours to meet Rachael, “the kindest nurse in Britain.” Rachael took care of people on the edges of society, so far on the periphery that not many could cope with the bundle of issues and illnesses that complicated their lives—drugs, violence, crime, and serious neglect. How did she do it, day in and day out? Christie wanted to know. “We don’t have time to judge them,” Rachael described, “because if we’re busy judging them, we don’t have time to love them.”
Perhaps Rachael is defining what is at the heart of compassion. Compassion is not about judging who deserves our attention or care. It is not about waiting for someone to change their behaviors or actions before we act in kindness. Compassion is, at its root, suffering with the person in front of us. (Literally, it’s what the word means in Latin: com = with, passus = suffering.) For anyone who has ever gone through something serious, this kind of compassion is magic that goes straight to the heart, transforming both the receiver and giver.