All-out compassion makes us truly Christian

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS is indeed the true mark of a real child of God. It’s when like Christ we are not afraid to complicate our life just to help everybody, especially those who are in need of some pressing as well as precious help.

In the gospel reading of the Mass on the 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, (cfr. Mk 5,21-43) we see Christ in the middle of his preaching journey being asked to cure a sick child and a woman with some issue of blood stealthily touching his vestment if only to get some healing of her illness. He, of course, attended to all these requests, not minding the inconveniences these caused on him.

We have to learn to complicate our life if only to attend to the needs of others in the best way we can. It’s in this way that we can become more and more like Christ, sharing in his sacrifices that, in fact, are meant for our own sanctification and salvation. It certainly would help us grow in the virtues. It’s how charity is lived in our daily affairs.

Yes, our life, indeed, if it has to reflect the life of Christ, cannot help but get complicated. But as long as we keep our faith strong and continue to be close to Christ, we can always manage, and avoid making a big issue out of this predicament. We can even find fulfillment in it.

We should not be afraid when our life gets complicated. As long as we are with Christ, we even would be willing to complicate our life. I think that is the proper attitude to develop in ourselves. We should not just wait for our life to get complicated. We somehow should complicate it by truly involving ourselves in the mission of Christ and in the lives of others.

Obviously, we should try our best to be properly prepared for this unavoidable condition in our life. Let’s prepare ourselves for this physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and morally. For this, we need to avail of all possible and appropriate means.

Let’s always follow the example of Christ whose heart flowed always with compassion, quick to notice the needs of others and to respond to them. And all this in all simplicity, telling the beneficiaries who were so bursting with gratitude that they wanted to broadcast what they received to the whole world, to keep quiet instead.

It’s an example that we should all try to imitate. One deep desire we should have is that of making as some kind of default mode that attitude of thinking always of the others, wishing them well all the time and doing whatever we can to help, despite whatever differences and conflicts we can have among ourselves.

It’s obviously not easy to do, but we can always try. With God’s grace and with our persistent effort, we can little by little and day by day hack it, such that it becomes second nature to us to think and feel for the others. That’s what compassion is all about.

Compassion starts in the heart, in our thoughts and desires. In this level, there is no limit in what we can do. Obviously, when we try to translate these prayers, thoughts and desires into action and material things, we can be greatly limited. But insofar as prayers and sacrifices are involved, the possibilities are unlimited.