I’ve been thinking a lot about compassion lately. What is compassion, anyway? How is it any different from mercy, or a bunch of other words?
I did some digging, and confirmed my hunch. I went back to the etymology of the English word compassion, and this is what I found.
“Compassion” comes from Latin roots, com-, meaning “with” or “together with”, and pati, meaning, interestingly enough, “suffering”. That’s the same word we get our related English word, passion, from.
We know a little bit about passion. Passion is strong feeling, a drive, a hunger. Passion consumes us, makes us act, makes us do things we wouldn’t do from an impartial, rational stance. Passion is what we feel for those we love, it’s emotion, deep and powerful. Passion is what motivates someone like William Wilberforce to give years of his life to fight against the evils of slavery. Passion is what motivates thousands upon millions of people to do all they can to prevent the slaughter of one more unborn baby. Passion is what motivates someone like Mother Teresa to give of herself, years of her life, and many earthly comforts to help the poor of Calcutta. Passion is what turns my stomach when I see people with ridiculous and unnessecary luxuries and remember that a child won’t eat today, and that many children will die. Passion is what makes me angry at the cavalier attitude we have toward the horrid working conditions endured by the workers who make our clothing, our housewares and many of our other purchases–workers who are, in fact, often enslaved.
But there’s another angle on the word passion. When capitalised, Passion takes on the connotation of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, His suffering. Deep feeling. Great love. Great passion.
Now we come back to compassion. Feeling together. To feel strongly right along with someone else. To identify with someone else’s hurt.
Compassion is when we see someone’s pain and feel our heart breaking, too. It’s a passion, a drive to do whatever we can to help them. It’s a creative, imaginative thing, as we dream up new ways to alleviate their suffering. It consumes us and motivates us to do whatever we can for them.
Compassion is what prompts us to fix injustice, to do right and reconcile wrong, to offer a smile, a hug, and a Kleenex. It’s essential to Christianity, and it is beautiful. And, at its heart, it’s another way to show love.
