by Laura Giddings, Inspired by Stations of the Cross reflections offered by community members
On this Good Friday, it seems appropriate to reflect on compassion, the final milestone of our Lenten Journey together.
The root of the word “passion” comes from Latin pati, or to suffer. At least that is the Christian understanding when we talk about the Passion of Christ, which our community remembers during Holy Week each year.
With the prefix “com” added, compassion can be understood to mean to suffer with. So what might it mean to us, to suffer together?
Perhaps it means to bear one another’s burdens, as the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Christian community at Galacia.
Perhaps it means to remember the people and places in the world where natural disaster such as storms or flooding, or human disaster such as war and trafficking, have made lives miserable.
Perhaps it means listening to someone’s grief at the loss of a loved one, once, twice or as often as they need to talk about it.
Perhaps it means taking the part of those whom society casts aside.
Perhaps, it means offering one’s own burdens to another to share. Not to solve, not to dismiss, but to connect at a deeper level and to understand one another’s essential humanity – beyond the trappings of status or ability.
Christianity is not the only faith system that highlights compassion, in the more general sense of concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Perhaps this is because we as a species need one another.
Recognizing that need and stepping toward one another to share our burdens and suffering might be the most important thing we can do to bridge our divides and work together to heal our broken world.
As we
dig deep together we ask:
For
the courage to show up,
Patience for the
journey,
Trust in the darkness,
Celebration in the
light,
and compassion for ourselves
and one
another.
