Millions of acts of compassion are undertaken at any one time. Perhaps the most obvious involve looking after elderly relatives or children with special needs. But there are small acts of compassion too. Like all the virtues, compassion is something which we need to practise, and people are continually practising compassion in everyday life. And these small actions matter. Talking to, or even smiling at and saying “hello” to, a homeless person on the street; comforting a friend suffering from a broken relationship; and writing a letter to somebody in prison are all simple acts of compassion. When we do these things, we are imitating Jesus whom, we are told in the Gospels, was often moved by compassion.
In a sense, compassion is closely linked to fraternity, an important theme of Pope Francis’s pontificate. Although sending a charity (or an individual in need) a cheque is a laudable act, I am not sure that it exhibits the same degree of compassion as support through a fraternal relationship – unless, of course, one suffers significant material pain because of the provision of financial support to another.
“Compassion” is not an abstract noun, despite the recent evolution of its dictionary definition: it demands actions, however small.
Returning to the original question of whether compassion is under threat, we might ask “how would we know?”. Although we know that millions of people are involved in wonderful acts of compassion every day, recent debates about assisted suicide and abortion should give us pause for thought. The Catholic Church does not discriminate when it comes to human dignity – its promotion involves caring for the vulnerable from conception to natural death. At the end of life, this means providing palliative and personal care for those who need it. And, in relation to the beginning of life, given that nearly one in three conceptions end in abortion and disabled babies can be legally aborted up to birth, we could ponder Isaiah who reminds us that God never forgets even the child in a mother’s womb (Is 49:15-16). A compassionate society would welcome and care for new life from conception whilst building a culture of care and compassion for every parent who faces a traumatic pregnancy as well as for those babies born in unfortunate circumstances. In short, a compassionate society cannot exclude its most vulnerable members.
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This post was originally published in Reform magazine and is reproduced with kind permission.
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Photo by Kampus Production
