Joan Chittister: Compassionate Community

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Philippians 4:5

“In a monastery of the heart, the commitment to the development of Benedict’s concept of community must be far wider in this century than it was in the sixth. It must burst through the monastery gates into a world where national laws and local prejudices fail to take into account the effects of our over-consumption of food, energy, resources, and weaponry on those who find themselves hungry, empty-handed, and sick . . .

We must begin to define community globally rather than simply locally, and work at every level to make it so. We must see the moderation of consumption as our way to reach beyond the boundaries of our own lives to the obscenely poor—who stand outside looking in at our three-car garages and second homes and wish for simply enough of what we have to live a humanely human life themselves.”

Joan Chittister in The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life (Collegeville: BlueBridge, 2011) 93-94.

Chittister inspires me to work for compassionate community locally and globally through my teaching, speaking, and engagement with the global network of GTP. I hope she inspires you too where God has you.

To build compassionate community locally and globally, it starts with our everyday decisions. Talk to a person close to you about this question. What are ways we can exhibit moderation to show more compassion?

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

“Mercy never began to be, but from eternity was; so it will never cease to be. It will never be more since it is itself infinite; and it will never be less because the infinite cannot suffer diminution. Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can change the tender mercies of our God. Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.”

A. W. Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy, 64. It’s great to be home safe. It’s a shocker to go from warm and tropical to cold and snowy. The new header photo illustrates the frigid weather that welcomed me home. Today we look at compassion through the eyes of a classic author and pastor.

We are all sinners. The fact that we don’t get the condemnation we deserve is because of God’s mercy. He does not leave us in our mess of our sin but in His unconditional love, He meets us where I are, shows us love, and delivers us from slavery to freedom in His boundless compassion. 

That’s what we get to do with our generosity toward others because of the unfailing love and boundless mercy and compassion of God. We get to give others what we graciously received. God, thanks for Your mercy, help our love to not fail, and fill us with divine pity and compassion. Amen.

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38

“For Jesus, love was the center point around which all other emotions including anger, sorrow and grief, took their cue. Since God’s very essence and nature is love (1 John 4:8, 16), Jesus’ reciprocal love relationship with the Father was the source of Jesus’ love for others. For example, in explaining to His disciples that He must return to the Father, Jesus declares that the ruler of this world has no power over Him and that He loves the Father and does exactly what the Father has commanded Him (John 14:31). Therefore, Jesus’ self-sacrificial love and compassion for others directly flow from His love for the Father and obedience to the Father’s will. Jesus’ mission of love, which perfectly aligned with mercy and compassion, resulted in His “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).”

Diane J. Chandler in Christian Spiritual Formation: An Integrated Approach for Personal and Relational Wholeness (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014) 86-87.

As I think about compassion linked to generosity this year, and as I return home from Central America, I am reminded of what my friend Edgar Güitz said to me dinner night before last. “You must be so tired from giving out and giving out so much all the time.”

I returned to my room and contemplated. Some days I do feel weary. Other days I am energized. Why? So, I ran to the Father asking him to fill me with compassion. At that moment I was reminded of an important lesson. You may know this but it was a good reminder for me.

If God has us serving in roles where we give a lot, we must daily ask for a refill. Some days we forget (or at least I do). Then we become handicapped. But Jesus shows us how to do good. He relied on the power of the Spirit and tapped the Father as the Source of compassion to show us the way.

If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:16-17

“No man who ignores the rights and needs of others can hope to walk in the light of contemplation, because his way has turned aside from truth, from compassion and therefore from God.”

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation (Trappist, KY: Abbey of Gethsemani, 1961) 18-19.

To ignore or do nothing about the basic needs of others is a big deal to God. He does not like it. When I travel outside the USA, I often see such great needs that I am overwhelmed about what to do. Most do nothing.

Perhaps you can identify with this based on your situation? What is the answer? Consider asking God what action is supposed to accompany your faith today, and go do it! Don’t ignore the still small voice.

This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Zechariah 7:9

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

Henri Nouwen, et al in Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life (New York: Doubleday) 4.

Weak, vulnerable, and powerless. That’s how God desires us to serve others. That’s how Christ appeared on earth. That’s how the Spirit works through us. What is the result?

Our generosity takes the shape of true justice. All are treated fairly and kindly. We show mercy, giving people what they need and don’t deserve. And, our compassion looks like love in action.

My GTP trip to El Salvador and Guatemala is drawing to a close. The Journey of Empowerment was so well received in both countries, participants plan to spread it through their networks.

Multiplying faithful stewards happens when we serve others from a place of weakness rather than strength, vulnerability instead of superficiality, and powerlessness in place of power. I’m learning this in real-time.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

“Pain is not only immediately recognisable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shovelling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. but pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain (Quebec: Sazimat University Press) 57-58.

When I don’t understand why God allows pain in my life or in the lives of those around me, I give thanks that His Word offers answers. Notice in today’s Scripture that Paul despaired of life itself but realized that the suffering was to teach Him to rely on God.

Lewis portrayed pain as a megaphone to get our attention. Does God have your attention? I am praying today that as we add compassion to our generosity, that God will teach us to give thanks in all circumstances (including pain) and to rely solely on Him to help us through it.

If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:16-17

“Not one time do we ever find Jesus being moved with sympathy; but every time He was moved with compassion something powerful was about to happen—a miracle was on the way. That’s because sympathy identifies with the problem, but compassion gets up, looks up, and says, “I need to do something about this.”

Brian Houston in Daily Readings from Live Love Lead: 90 Days to Living, Loving, Leading (New York: FaithWords, 2016) Reading entitled “Sympathy vs. Compassion” for Day 44.

Why do I feel like for much of my life I have shown sympathy rather than compassion? I think society taught me to rationalize sympathy as sufficient.

The trainings are going well in Guatemala. In part, I think, because of the “do something” part. At GTP we are doing something to train local workers.

I posted a new header photo of Mayan ruins at Mixco Viejo to illustrate that compassion is like rebuilding ruins, doing something about brokenness.

Too often we feel for people but do nothing. For James, the half-brother of Jesus, such faith was not faith at all. Do you show sympathy or compassion?

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18

“We must understand that the Lord is not only tender and merciful and full of compassion, but He is also the God of justice, holiness, and wrath.

Many Christians have a caricature of God. They do not see God in all of His wholeness. We glibly quote John 3:16, but we forget to quote the following verses: “he who does not believe has been judged already” (v. 18 NASB).

Compassion is not complete in itself, but must be accompanied by inflexible justice and wrath against sin and a desire for holiness.

What stirs God most is not physical suffering but sin. All too often we are more afraid of physical pain than of moral wrong. The cross is the standing evidence of the fact that holiness is a principle for which God would die.

God cannot clear the guilty until atonement is made. Mercy is what we need and that is what we receive at the foot of the cross.”

Billy Graham in Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010) reading for 23 April.

I don’t know about you, but when I read this post, I read it again, and then sat and confessed. Sometimes I function with a caricature rather than a clear picture of God in my mind. I am learning more about compassion than I bargained for.

Ponder the three points. Inflexible justice means that no one gets a free pass; all are equal at the foot of the cross. Wrath against sin means that it must be dealt with, and we could not do it on our own so God did it for us. A desire for holiness drives us to be people of mercy and compassion.

Father in heaven, help us have a fear of moral wrong over pain. Holy Spirit, empower us to extend mercy to those around us rather than judgment. Jesus, grow generous compassion in each of us so we look like You to the watching world. In Your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

“To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people’s places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick in “Forbes Magazine” (1940) 45-46: 28.

Yesterday I visited four ministries served by Generation to Generation Network in Guatemala. It was so encouraging to see these ministry workers applying biblical and practical training and growing local giving.

In visiting them I pictured myself in their places and facing their challenges. Some of them face circumstances I could never imagine facing. We can’t be generous to people if we don’t know their situations.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Isaiah 53:3

“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “After Ten Years,” in Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. E. Bethge (London: SCM, 1971) 10.

When I think of others less in terms of what they do and omit to do and more in light of what they suffer, it changes me.

It forms in me a heart of compassion. If you are on this journey and you want a tool for growing, here it is: get familiar with pain.

Do this and, I guarantee it, you will become more like Christ, and you will become more generous.

Today I am visiting blind, suffering, and orphan children served by Generation to Generation Network.

I have helped the founder, Edgar Güitz, grow giving for this work, and I am want to meet those he serves first-hand to re-tell their story.

What would it look like for you to get familiar with those in pain? To be like Jesus is to be despised, rejected, and linked to suffering.