Chaplain's Corner

A few months ago a gal I work with came back from a Mexican holiday.  As we talked about her holiday, she shared that the best part of the holiday for her was the day she spent working with children whose families live and work in the dump.  As she shared her experience and why it was such an exceptional part of her winter holiday, my mind wondered to a document that recently came to my attention called the Charter of Compassion.  Following is the full text of the charter:

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women  to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion; to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate; to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures; to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity; to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.”

The hope of the write of the Charter of Compassion is that people, regardless of the race or religion will make a renewed commitment to live lives of compassion,  To chose to act in the best interest of another when we see suffering around us.  Now, all but the hardest hearted people are touched at some level by the suffering they see around them.  But all too often we do nothing with those feelings.  We simply feel bad for the person suffering and we move on, doing nothing.

And I know the thought process that we experience.  My mind goes there all the time.  It’s something like this:  “Wow, that’s awful, those poor people, how are they ever going to deal with this? But what can I do?”  And, because we don’t believe we can do anything to effect any kind of improvement to the person’s situation, we simply move on.

What can we do?  Well, may I suggest that we do something, even if we think it will be meaningless.  What are some things we can do?  We can stop in the moment and pray for that person.  We can stop and offer some help, any help.  You may not believe anything you do could be significant, but if a person is hurting and someone sees that pain and stops and asks, “Is there anything I can do to help?”  it does make a difference.

You see compassion is the choice to move towards the pain of another with the desire to help.  This is what the Charter of Compassion is encouraging that we stop moving away from the needs of others and make the choice to move towards those in need.  NO, maybe you won’t be able to do any substantive to change the person’s plight, but we must never underestimate the value of moving towards a person in need and offering our care.

If we read the Gospel with this in mind and watch the movement of Jesus, he always moved towards the needs of others, even when society in general had decided this was not to be done.  He moved towards lepers, towards the sick and wounded, towards those that society had pushed to the fringes.

This is what this Charter is encouraging.  That regardless of our religious convictions, regardless of our race, regardless of our politics and ideologies that people just recognize that as human beings, we ought to show one another compassion.

Now to be honest, I have mixed feelings about this kind of effort.  Not about the goal but about the real possibility of the efforts success.  Theologically I believe that the sinful heart is always going to be propelled towards self satisfaction and away from caring for another.  Even when God has done a regenerative work in a person’s life, this propensity still has some power.  That is why so many people of faith are not very compassionate.

But I applaud the energy behind this Charter of Compassion and when I sit with someone who is compassionate, like my workmate who gave a day of her holiday to work with children who live in a dump in a Mexican City, I realize there is hope, hope that God’s compassion can become ours and that his movement towards the needs of others can be realized through our lives, if we will simply chose to allow His work to happen through us.

My Gram was a godly woman.  She died in her 90’s back in 2001.  She had a compassionate heart and I can remember standing beside her in the little church she worshipped in Lakemont, Pennsylvania, singing a song that encouraged that we be people of compassion.  Here are the words of the first verse:

“How I praise Thee, precious Savior, that Thy love laid hold of me; Thou has saved and cleansed and filled me that I might Thy channel be.  Channels only, blessed Master – but with all Thy wondrous power – flowing through us, Thou canst use us every day and every hour.”

I think if we have this disposition, then it might just be possible for us to be the compassionate people this Charter of Compassion encourages.