“Compassion is always, at its most authentic, about a shift from the cramped world of self-preoccupation into a more expansive place of fellowship, of true kinship.” These words come from the book Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, written by Gregory Boyle, an American Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, an organization that provides employment training and support to former gang members. I was first introduced to Father Boyle’s work during my final semester at College of the Holy Cross in “Contemporary Christian Morality”, a favorite course of mine that examined the fundamental ethics of moral agency, human freedom, conscience, sin, suffering and virtue. It was a book that has continued to stay with me for …show more content…
Drawing a distinction between being for someone and being with someone, Father Boyle writes: “Jesus was not a man for others. He was one with others. Jesus didn’t seek the rights of lepers. He touched the leper even before he got around to curing him. He didn’t champion the cause of the outcast. He was the outcast.” Such a distinction has significant implications for understanding ourselves in relation to others. While being for someone implies a separateness, a distinction between “them” and “us”, being with someone requires the recognition of a oneness with another, a unity that eradicates differences and binds people together. “’Be compassionate as God is compassionate’, means the dismantling of barriers that exclude,” writes Father Boyle. Accordingly, true compassion is not only recognizing the pain and suffering of others – it is not just advocating for those in need. It is being with others in their pain and suffering – and “bringing them in toward yourself.” Indeed, scripture scholars connect the word compassion to the “deepest part of the person,” showing that when Jesus was “moved with pity”, he was moved “from the entirety of his
Howard Thurman in his book, “Jesus and the Disinherited” presented Jesus as a role model for the oppressed on how to find strength, freedom and peace within God and oneself. Thurman shares the story of how Jesus offered an alternative to accepting the Roman rules, like the Sadducees did in hope of being allowed to maintain their Jewish traditions; A solution to remaining silently obedient, like the Pharisees, as hatred and resentment destroyed them from within. Jesus provided an alternative solution to the Zealots of his day who resorted to physical force to advance their justified cause, often paying the ultimate cost, their life. Jesus taught love. Love of God, self, neighbor and especially your enemy. Thurman stresses that Jesus know that “it is man’s reaction to things that determines their ability to exercise power over them”.(Thurman, 18) Jesus taught and modeled the art of strength through humility. He
Compassion has became something rare in our society, and something that a lot of people lack. The author, Barbara Lazear Ascher, explains to us that compassion is not a character trait, but rather something that we learn along the way with the help of real life situations we encounter, such as the ones she encountered herself. Ascher persuades her audience that compassion is not just something you are born with by using anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and allusions.
Writer, Barbara Lazear Asher, uses the quintessential use of persuasive appeals to inform and persuade the reader. Her purpose to illustrate compassion through observation and experiences is acknowledged and thoroughly detailed throughout the text. “On compassion” uses an ideal amount of logos, pathos, ethos within the essay drawing from life in the city. Barbara’s account of experienced kindness is felt and understood to the reader. The acts of sympathy and compassion are clearly detailed within the text. Asher imposes her attitude on compassion through figurative language welcomes in the idea of
In Dorothy Day’s article, Room for Christ, she presents making room for Christ as always seeking ways to repay Christ through good deeds committed in the present. These good deeds are deeds that do not necessarily benefit ourselves, but the lives of the people around us. It is the people who suffer in our time that are now Christ. How we act upon these suffering people, is how we act upon Christ. In Room for Christ, Dorothy says, “He made heaven hinge on the way we act towards Him in his disguise of commonplace, frail and ordinary human beings” (3).
The human experience is what connects people to one another. What we experience defines who we are and who we become. It also defines how we interact with others. The amazing thing is that not only do the events that bring joy, peace and happiness connect us but also those that bring anxiety, fear and despair. This brings to light the fact that God somehow in his sovereignty uses all things for the good of those who love Him. These ideas are brought to light in Jerry Sittser’s book, A Grace Disguised which is his personal journey of loss and the insight and experience that was gained in the face of great tragedy. In his book, Sittser discusses various insights he has gained, such as how Christian’s view sorrow, how families recover when someone they love develops a mental disorder, and the Christian view on suffering and forgiveness. I believe that the author has written a book that has many universal truths that can be applied to anyone’s life and they have the ability to bring healing to many. His ideas can also aid professionals who work with the mentally ill in becoming more compassionate.
Anybody who reads “A Crime of Compassion” can easily find it very emotional. I believe the pathos plays a very important...
DeMott, Benjamin. "Guilt and Compassion." New York Times Book Review 26 May 1985: : I25.
...ne; after all, it is easy to react against those who have harmed you with rage and violence. However, to show mercy and compassion is something extraordinary.
Smith argues that despite how self centered an individual may be, he or she will have interest in the welfare of others(source). Similarly, no matter how cruel or insensitive one may appear, he or she will be moved by the misfortune of another person. Smith examines compassion and pity, which is “the emotion we feel for the misery of others, when we see it or are made to think about it in a vivid way. The sorrow of others makes us sad” (Smith 1759). Therefore, it can be assumed that in times of a disaster one should become sympathetic for the victims of the
A Model of Christian Charity points us in the direction of enlightenment through the love of God based on mutual respect and adoration, never lustful or sinful, and following in the spirit of connected separate bodies. John Winthrop ask his people to love one another as neighbors, as brotherly bonds whom strengthen pure love and separate this love from carnal love on a model of affection. Winthro...
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us
Radey, M., & Figley, C. R. (2007). The social psychology of compassion. Clinical Social Work Journal, 35(3), 207-214.
The whole process that surrounds the act of acquiring a tattoo has been of great interest in television, documenting the growth of the practice in western culture. Programmes including LA ink, London Ink, my tattoo obsession, tattoo fixers to mention a few, have all contributed to the commercialisation of the practice and bringing it to a wider audience. In the past women tattoo artists were simply a handful of people, now talented tattoo artists such as Kat Von D, who has her own reality show, a tattoo shop and ironically a foundation to cover tattoos.
Winston Churchill, President Theodore Roosevelt, and John Fetterman they all have something in common and that is tattoos. I am here to argue that tattoos can be view as freedom of expression, strong Naval tradition, and more importantly no hindrance on job performance. The Marine Corps should have no restrictions on tattoos. Over the past 50 years’ tattoos have continued to grow in popularity, yet the Marine Corps wants to place restrictions on their service members; claiming their policy is designed to help their service members to maintain a discipline appearance. It would be proven that tattoo is viewed as favorable by royalty and the elite.
A simple act of love towards another human being can change their entire life. “The Father loved him before the creation of the world, and the reason the father sends him is so that the Father 's love for him might be in others also.” (Reeves 2012) In context, he is talking about The Father (God) loving and sending him (Jesus) to spread the love of God throughout the world. Jesus did this noble duty through showing kindness to all, regardless of social class, race, stature, gender, or past sins. The Bible calls us to “Be imitators of God” in Ephesians 5:1. As we learned in the first part of this course, if we imitate God, we are imitating Jesus as well.