Living With Compassion

             

            I’ve never been particularly fond of the parable of the servants who were each given a sum of money by their master.  Two of them invested the money and doubled it and received the praise of their master when he returned.  The third one was afraid and buried his money and then gave it back to the master when he came back.  The master rewarded the ones who doubled their money and punished the servant who only returned what he had been given. 

            The reason that I don’t like this story is because it seems to me to be devoid of compassion, which I think is the quality that Jesus brought to all of us by his life and ministry.  I would rather have had the master take the frightened servant aside and thank him for giving back his money and sharing with him some possible ways that he could have used the small amount that he had been given to make a difference in the world.  That would have been preferable to seeing the poor man get punished.  

            Compassion isn’t always easy.  Sometimes we are frightened by misery.  When we see large groups of people who don’t have enough to eat or places to live, we sometimes are tempted to retreat from it and wonder if somebody else can do something to help them.  Our role in taking care of each other is the essence of compassion.  Once when we were on our meals-on-wheels route, a woman came to us and asked if we could give her a dollar.  She wanted to buy a hot chocolate and didn’t have the money to do that.  I gave her five dollars and watched the tears well up in her eyes.  She said that her house had burned down and that she was trying to find a place to live.  She left us and went to get her hot chocolate.  I certainly didn’t do much to help her, but those tears of hers after getting a small amount of money stayed with me.  She certainly needed more help than I could give her at that moment, and she was only one of a number of people on the street who are left behind by the rest of us.

            Finding ways that we can reach out to those in need is the essence of our religion.  God created us, loves us and asks us to love one another.  That isn’t something that is just said, it is what our creator wants of us all.  There is more than enough wealth in this world to take care of all of us.  The fact that it accumulates with those who are wealthy isn’t new.  It has been going on since the world was created.  Jesus came to teach us how to care for each other and to spread the wealth around so that we can all be cared for.  One of the best pieces of art that I think that I have ever seen is a sketch of Jesus sitting at the base of a lamppost with his arms around two obviously homeless people who are leaning on him.  That sketch says it all.  Jesus caring for those in need and asking us to join him in that effort.  Compassion is a great gift that we have been given by our Lord.  Let us not forget to use it.