Almost every major religion – Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, Christian claims compassion is central to their faith. They all speak of God as the God of compassion.
We hear talk of compassion so often, and so insincerely, and so abstractly that most of us no longer hear it or feel it at all.
It is just more of the background chatter that fills our heads and empties our souls. Some years ago, I decided to try to make compassion the center of my life – with people, with animals, with refugees, with the elderly.
As an angry, insecure, vulnerable, and increasingly mortal man, compassion brought me more satisfaction than almost anything else in my life after love.
Compassion is the place I want to go, the place I want to be, even when I can’t, even when I’m not.
For centuries, our spiritual guides have echoed the call of Christ, “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” Easy to say, harder to do. The message once thrilled the world but falls now on cold and suspicious hearts.
Jesus is a name to invoke, to hide behind. If he ever does come back, it will really hit the fan. The priests are in all the temples.
Compassion is not what we see on the news or hear from our leaders. It’s not what we see, not what we learn, not how we feel.
For me, compassion is a kind of membership – to be with others as they suffer and to willingly enter into a fellowship of the weak.
Compassion is my meager contribution to justice and peace among people, I can’t save the world or even change it, but I can practice compassion in small and meaningful ways as I enter my fellowship, and it shapes and uplifts me.
Compassion came to me late in life, as I suspect when it comes to many when we look down the end of time and treasuring how to use what we have.
Is this possible?
Yes, I am here to say yes, But it only works when we dare believe that we do not have to compete for love. If you believe in God, then love is freely given to us by the One who calls us to compassion.
If not, you can find it yourself.
Compassion is the freedom to choose a compassionate life, a life of meaning, fulfillment, and downward mobility, something that is reviled and ridiculed in our culture and considered dangerous, unwise, even stupid.
The Fellowship Of The Weak are pushed to the edge of life, out of sight, out of hearing, out of favor, far away from the news. This Fellowship is out of another time, peering around corners to see when it is safe to come out of hiding.
This is not a time of compassion; we are too complex, too sophisticated. It exists as a secret society, below the radar, around the counter, hiding in the basement, hiding its face, living in secret waiting for its time, which will come again.
The compassionate life is low-paying, a kind of poverty amidst wealth, a place of solitude and prayer and contemplation when there are so many urgent demands pouring in on us from everywhere.
This is the way of the prophets, the mystics, the Gods and the saints: the compassionate life is the way towards the poor, the needy and the vulnerable, the prisoners, the refugees, the lonely, the hungry, the forgotten, the shunned and despised, the let go, the dying and the homeless.
What do they have to offer? Joy and peace.
The joy that compassion has brought to my existence – as far as I still have to go – is one of the best-kept secrets of my life. Even I forget it sometimes.
It is a secret only known to me, and to the Fellowship Of The Weak, an uplifting secret that can be discovered not only once, but again and again and again.
Out of favor is exactly right.
This is so eloquent……”fellowship of the weak” very powerful
phrase. thank you so very much Jon Katz.
I learned the real meaning of compassion as a hospice volunteer! It is one of the greatest gifts . I have said many times that the gifts I have received from caring for the dying are more than I ever imagined .
Jon, your comments on compassion is very timely for me. I don’t know if you are comfortable with my mentioning a book which I have just read, “From a Mountain Tibet: A Monk’s JOurney, by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche. He is abbot of Holy Isle, Scotland, close by the Isle of Arran, to which I’ve been three times and thus am familiar with the location. In his book, he speaks of compassion as the foundation of all our beings as humans and how difficult it is to achieve. I am neither/nor, in my religious beliefs, but I am more attuned to the concept of intellectual mind thinking than organized religion which has historically been male-dominated to the negation of women’s presence in religion. To quiet our minds, to meditate, as you do, to be able to feel compassion for others, is the basis of self-calming. Yet, I ask, where do boundaries come in? Where and how do we set boundaries with people who infringe upon them to the destruction of others. I cannot reconcile my mind to this, full compassion for those who would harm us. I wouldn’t make a complete Buddhist. And I step on spiders and kill bees if they get inside my home. Compassion is not easy for Westerners to comprehend, though many do.
Sandy Proudfoot
You say, “Compassion is the freedom to choose a compassionate life, a life of meaning, fulfillment, and downward mobility.” It must be the very gullible who read you or you’re trying to be a cult figure and have your followers believe whatever _ s. you throw out . Compassion has to do with feeling what others are feeling, not how much freedom a blog writer has.
Jack, I believe you describe empathy. I prefer gullible to lazy and ignorant. Here is one of many good definitions of empathy. G-O-O-G-L-E is another term you might consider learning.
You have easily persuaded me you know absolutely nothing about empathy or compassion, but that is clear from the tone of your message.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/empathy/definition
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=definition+of+Empathy
Take care and please go be nasty to someone else. You make a good case for the argument that there is too much freedom on social media. Best j
Here is a definition of compassion: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=what+is+compassion
This is really beautiful jon, I love it when somebody can wrap words around the way I feel. I suppose that’s what good writing is really about. Thank you, again.