“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” ? Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

Compassion….’ a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.‘ I have been thinking about compassion in these beginning days of Advent. It seems the world is in such need of it. And, in the place of privilege in which I and so many around me sit, we seem to be the ones who are responsible, indeed required, to offer it. It also seems in short supply in our public discourse. And this is heart-breaking for compassion is one of those giver-receiver, receiver-giver experiences. Most often when we are offering compassion we receive it in return creating a circular energy that has power to transform both the one in need of an ease of suffering and also the one feeling deep sorrow on their behalf. It might well be one of the most central experiences of the Holy.

This morning I have been thinking about how the story of the birth of the Christ Child is fueled by compassion. The elder woman Elizabeth is gripped with compassion as she nurtures the younger woman Mary, who finds herself pregnant and not yet married. Joseph must also have been compassionate of heart as he took Mary into his home and his heart, as he chose to join his life to hers. And as these two traveled toward Bethlehem, having no place to lay their heads and bring their child into the world, they are offered the compassion most refugees seek…..an open door, a warm place to rest, the sense of being seen and heard, perhaps a kind word and even a loaf of bread. The nameless inn-keeper was a person fueled by compassion. In this story, even the animals might have had compassionate spirits, moving aside and making room for the encroaching humans.

Compassion is, as the wise one his Holiness the Dalai Lama writes, a necessity and not a luxury. When we forget this, we become our lesser selves, those ones farther from our deep knowing of what it means to be made in the Image of God. When we speak words and take action that moves us from compassion toward one another and especially toward those we choose to name ‘other’, we are fracturing the very fabric of what it means to be human, beloved ones of our Creator. 

There is a great swirling in our midst these days, a swirling that wants to catch us up and sending us fleeing into darkened and isolated corners, battening down the hatches of our lives and drawing thick, rigid lines around who we are, what we hold dear. Compassion is the antidote to this dangerous swirling and we would be wise to pay attention to its warm, glowing invitation. The one whose birth we will celebrate soon was also the one who embodied that compassion, welcoming the stranger, healing the broken-hearted, making a home for the least, the lost, the left-out.

If we are serious about this celebration, we are called to do the same. It may mean setting aside long-held beliefs about ‘who is in’ and ‘who is out’. It may mean opening our doors and offering hospitality in large supply. It may mean moving over and making room for yet one more, even one ready to give birth to something we cannot yet imagine.

Compassion…..it is a necessity. Without it we cannot survive.