Spirit of Compassion
Rev. Gus Carter 10/ 24 /04
The Readings which relate to this sermon are at this link.

Jesus' parables were meant to shock. This shock was intended to shake our minds into rethinking our human ideas that obscure our sense of the ways of God. I often think that I grew up in a judgmental society. Condemning the evil that others do seemed the right thing to do. People do not seem to have considered much the story of Adam and Eve. The next sin after eating the forbidden fruit was that 'Adam blamed Eve. We humans tend to erase our own guilt by blaming others. At the same time we are usually ignoring any sense of our own responsibility.

It is noteworthy that the Book of Revelation calls Satan "the accuser." Satan is bent on calling down God's wrath on others. Many Christians seem not to have heard what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "Stop judging that you may not be judged. As you judge so will you be judged ... Why do you notice the splinter in your brothers eye but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye. ?"

St. Paul was a Pharisee before his conversion. He had found how difficult and painful it was to rely on oneself to be a good person. After his vision of Jesus, Paul came to rely on the power of the risen Christ. We all know his comment, "There but for the grace of God go I." If we are not great sinners, it is because the Lord has given us the strength to resist temptation. Jesus told today's parable because all individual who are striving for holiness must fight against taking pride in their good works. We ignore another of Paul's sayings that we can not even have a good thought without the grace of God. I think that St. Teresa gave us the best possible advice when she said: "Thank God for your gifts. If you realize that they come from God, it will not make you proud. It will prepare you for greater gifts." Virtue means enjoying doing that right thing. Thank God for the enjoyment of doing good, but keep in mind that the power for good comes from God.

Most of us are aware that it is easy for humans to blame others for their own worst faults. When we are most critical of others, we have a clue to our own worst fault. Hence we do not face our own wrongdoing, We easily hide our wickedness from ourselves, and we never think of correcting our own sinfulness.

The judgment of the Pharisee that brings him satisfaction, at the same time separates him from other humans. We see a man whose attitude in his own mind would justifY him in ignoring and even hurting the tax collector. If we reflect on it, we come to realize how much our hateful thoughts, emotions, and desires lead us to harmful actions. We all have a sense of how the pride, the egoism of others, hurts us and hinders much good from being done. Egotistical people cause all kinds of trouble from bickering in the office to wars and famines.

An ancient Buddhist poem reads: "If all the harms/ Fears and suffering in the world! Arise from self-grasping! what need have I for such a great evil spirit." The Buddhists have long meditated on practices that bring peace and enlightenment. They have found that humans have no greater ally in the fight against destructive pride than the practice of compassion. They say we must make a clear distinction between what is in our shortsighted ego's self-interest and what is in our ultimate interest. Mistaking one for the other causes all our suffering.

Compassion is a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible and necessary to help alleviate human suffering. How do we generate a spirit of compassion within ourselves? First, we must discover love in ourselves. Remember someone whose love really made a difference in your life. Recall that sense of love and let it make you grateful. Remembering that we have been generously loved helps us to feel worthy of love and really lovable. We let that love flow out of us beginning with those closest to us and finally going out to strangers and even our enemies.

The second step is to think of others as exactly the same as ourselves. Do not think of another under some title, father, mother, spouse, friend. See others as another you with the same feelings as you, the same desire for happiness, the same fear of suffering. Thinking of a person as exactly like ourselves will open our hearts to them and give us more insight into how to help.

When you are at a loss to know how to help, put yourself in his or her place. Imagine what you would be going through if you were suffering the same pain. We ask ourselves, "How would I feel? How would I want my friends to treat me? What would I most want from them? Here we are transferring our self-cherishing to someone else. Putting ourselves in another's place is a powerful way of loosening the hold that self-grasping and self-promotion have on us and so releasing our compassion. We think that fleeing suffering is the way to happiness. It is surprising that all the great religions have found that the way to happiness is to share and alleviate the sufferings of others.