Compassion
And the master of that slave felt compassion, and he released him and forgave him the debt.
Matthew 18:23-35 (NRSV)
STORY
Henri J. M. Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, professor, writer, and theologian. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School, he left academia to counsel and mentor individuals with mental and physical disabilities. He is best remembered for his work at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario, where he began his residency in the fall of 1986. L’Arche means “The Ark.”
L’Arche homes and programs operated according to a community model. At L’Arche, people with disabilities and those who assist them live together in homes and apartments, sharing life with one another and building a community.
Nouwen was known to suffer from extreme loneliness. He openly wrote about his feelings in the 39 books and hundreds of articles that he published. In these publications Nouwen ascribed his approach to ministry as an interest in the daily life of people and his own journey with the Christian life. His recognition as a spiritual guide has been attributed to his ability to describe his personal struggles in a relatable manner.
In his understanding of suffering, Nouwen realized that we are a part of a suffering world, a suffering generation, and that we are both a suffering person and a suffering minister. It is Nouwen’s contention that ministers, both ordained and lay, by recognizing their own wounds are enabled to heal the wounds of others. Our woundedness can serve as a source of healing when ministering to others.
When Nouwen was a professor of pastoral theology at Yale Divinity School he wrote the book titled The Wounded Healer, that was published in March 1979. This book best presents Nouwen’s understanding of ministry. In the book he wrote:
Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds? so we don’t have to be embarrassed but ‘How can we put our roundedness in the service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.
DEVOTION
To be a wounded healer one must be a compassionate healer.
In the New Testament the Greek word splanchnitzomai is translated into English as “to show compassion” or “to have compassion.” The word splanchnitzomai, as used in the New Testament, literally means “to have one’s bowels turned over.” By creating a linguistic link between the idea of compassion and the bowels or inward parts of the body, the authors of the gospels were affirming in a very vivid way that when we truly show compassion for someone who is suffering, we feel their hurt as a nagging ache in the pit of our stomach.
Judaism associated compassion with maternity. The Hebrew word for compassion is rechem which means womb or uterus. If one becomes engaged in a compassionate act the womb – the sacrosanct nurturer of life – is pained. Compassion, for the Jewish community, expresses a feminine characteristic of God.
The English word for compassion is derived from two Latin words, com “with” and pati “to suffer.” Compassion means “to suffer with.” It means total and complete solidarity with another individual in which his or her suffering becomes that of my own. The suffering of the afflicted one is transposed into the soul of the caregiver. The suffering of one can no longer be distinguished from the suffering of the other. I, and the other, in suffering have now become one and the same.
Such a confession can be sustained when one understands that, in the Greek, as recorded in the New Testament, only Jesus is ascribed to possess the personal attribute of compassion. Jesus, and Jesus alone, was compassionate. The biblical writers make a succinct declaration that only Jesus was compassionate, and the best that we can do is emulate the compassion of Jesus. Other individuals in the Bible may have been loving, concerned, and understanding, though only Jesus was compassionate. This is a confession that when Jesus acted with compassion or spoke the word in his teaching, it became the turning point in the life of another individual, bringing reconciliation and restoration, wholeness and healing.
There are several biblical references describing Jesus as a man who acted with compassion and taught compassion.
Jesus lived a compassionate life as recorded in these stories: the healing of the leper (Mark 1:40-45); the healing of the epileptic youth (Mark 9:14-29); the feeding of the five-thousand (Mark 6:30-44); the healing of the two blind men (Matthew 20:29-34); encountering the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17).
Jesus, as we have recorded in the Scriptures, used the word compassion as the pivotal event in his teaching parables. For the individuals involved in the story it was always a watershed moment in their lives. Jesus is recorded as teaching the meaning of compassion in these stories: in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-35); in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37); in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
The good within us must come out, manifesting itself as altruistic actions, kind words, understanding, and a nonjudgmental attitude. Jesus’ lessons on compassion, both as he lived and as he taught, are lessons that all of society must be emulate. Jesus’ teachings on compassion and his examples of living a compassionate life, if seen and heard as practiced by Christians, will bring out the good in everyone.
Thomas Gallaudet was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1822. As an Episcopal priest he began teaching the deaf at St. Stephens Church in New York City. He married a deaf woman, Elizabeth Budd, who was one of his students. The teaching ministry became too large for St. Stephens, so it was relocated to St. Ann’s Church. On October 3, 1852, Rev. Gallaudet held the first-reported worship service for the deaf. Gallaudet once said of his teaching ministry, “The thing is, it is our story, our wounds that need to be healed, our words that need to be understood, and our voices that need to be heard.”
If we are able to acknowledge and accept our own wounds, then with compassion, we will be able to heal the wounds of others.