Compassion means
empathizing and caring for the unfortunate situation of the others. When we have compassion, we put yourself in
the shoes of others in their misfortunes and feel what they feel. Compassion is supposed to not only feel pity
but also to try to remedy the sufferings of others.
When we feel compassion for a friend who has lost a loved one, we
try to tell him we feel his sorrow and that we are united with him in his
suffering perhaps with a word or two of condolence. We could not fully remedy his pain and our
condolences are all we could offer. But it would be a big help to alleviate his
pain.
St. Thomas Aquinas discussed the virtue of compassion in his
Summa Theologiae by asking a question: “Whether pain and sorrow are alleviated
by the compassion of friends?” The question may seem odd to the modern mind
because the answer seems obvious. But
St. Thomas reasoning however is enlightening.
He offers two reasons. First, as
mentioned it is to lessen the weight of the burden of others by telling them we
are united with their sufferings. His
second reason however is more positive.
He argues that because the virtue of compassion is rooted in love, when
a person who is suffering witnesses the love his friends have for him, he
experiences a care that he has not experienced before. In short, it’s not just compassion but also
love. The friends of the grieving person
are therefore telling him, “We love you, that’s why we feel sorry for your
misfortune.”
Being compassionate also means being generous with others or
being helpful especially to those who are in need materially or
spiritually. The Catholic Church lists
down two kinds of compassionate actions that we could render to others that is
based on Scripture. One is corporal or
bodily in nature and the other spiritual.
These are the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy. The corporal works of mercy are: to feed the hungry, to give drink to the
thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers or homeless, to
visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy are: to instruct the ignorant (especially with
religious knowledge), to counsel the doubtful (especially giving spiritual
advise), to admonish the sinners (correcting others with love or practicing
tough love), to bear wrongs patiently (patience with the weaknesses of others),
to forgive offenses, and to pray for the living and the dead.
Compassion seems to be the modern world’s favorite virtue. It is the slogan of those seeking social
justice. We often hear of cries of
compassion towards the poor and the marginalized, the downtrodden of society,
the discriminated people such as those of different skin color other than
white, the bias against women in the workplace, etc. These are good causes in
themselves but sometimes there is a kind of compassion related to this that is
misplaced. We refer to the kind of
compassion that is used to justify abortion and euthanasia. With abortion some groups feel compassionate
towards the distraught mother who perhaps could not afford to raise the child
therefore the baby ought to be aborted.
With euthanasia on the other hand, it seems to offer a stronger argument
because they are trying to relieve dying people of unnecessary pain when death
is inevitable. Dr. Peter Kreeft, would
counter that the life of a person is more important than our feelings of
compassion for the dying. We are not the
creators of life therefore we have no authority to take it away. We can’t act like gods. Only God is God. As the Muslims would say in their Shahadah,
there is no god but God. Therefore, only
God can decide when to take away a person’s life.
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