Homilies

Cursillo at St. Basil Seminary, October 7, 2007

JESUS RAISES THE WIDOW'S SON (2) (LUKE 7:11-16)

My dear friends:

How do we react when we see or hear of a misfortune happening to others, be it
death, sickness, loss of a job or any kind of failure or embarrassing situation?

First Possible reaction:
- Some people react with indifference. "Who cares?" Am I my brother's
keeper?", said Cain. Instead of looking at people and seeing them and feeling
with them, we look through them, as if they didn't exist. How would you feel if
people ignored you and looked through you as if you did not exist, as if it made
no difference whether you are dead or alive? God is not pleased with such
attitude. If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would have come from
heaven, just the same, to save you by His Divine Blood! You certainly are of much
more value than a clear glass through which people look, as if it was not there.
We imagine most of the people in Jerusalem, on the first Good Friday, when
Jesus passed through their streets carrying His cross. How many of them took
note of His plight?

2 - The second type of reaction to the misfortune of others is taking note and
expressing sympathy, but with detachment. We express, but we don't impress.
We say, "we are sorry"; but, frankly, do we feel sorry? In the back of our mind, we
are glad it didn't happen to us. (Arabic funny saying, Allah yirxamu w yebqiina.
Mliix til3it fii w ma til3it fiina). How would you feel if people were watching and
taking note of your sorrow, but were not feeling with you? Imagine the Blessed
Virgin standing on the feet of the Cross crying and saying, as in the popular
hymn: “I am the sad mother and there is no one to console me…”

3 - Sometimes, and this is much better, we feel sorry; but we feel it externally.
Our sorrow, though very sincere, is not reaching far enough. There is again an
Arabic saying: "Live charcoal burns only where it falls." (Ljamra ma btexro' gair
mawda3ha.) We are not holding with our hand the live charcoal, so we don't feel
the pain of the loss.

Jesus, a mere stranger passing by, could have looked with indifference, not even
interested in asking who the dead man was. Instead, being the merciful and the
Lover of Mankind, He did much more. He felt deeply with those afflicted. He
looked at the bereaved mother and at the dead young man, her only child, and
He almost cried. He was moved. “He had pity on her,” says the Gospel. The
Greek word (Evsplangnisthi) means more than pity; it says: He was moved inside,
He was deeply affected. By the way, may I respectfully suggest that the translation
that we read in our official Gospel Book (Alleluia Press) minimizes Jesus’ reaction.
We heard: “The Lord, seeing her, was sorry for her.” He, in fact was much more
than just “sorry.” He was deeply moved inside. As the “Good News” Bible puts it:
“When the Lord saw her, His heart was filled with pity for her, and He said to her,
‘Don’t cry.”

4 - The fourth and best way to react to people's misfortunes, is as Our Lord
did, not only taking note as a spectator; nor feeling with, which is sympathy, but
feeling within, which is empathy. Sympathy or compassion (from the Greek:
Syn=with & pathia=feeling, and the Latin: Cum=with & passio=deep feeling, as in
passion) Empathy instead is feeling within oneself. En-pathia (in Greek:
En=inside, within, and pathos=deep feeling). We not only feel sorry, but we
express our sorrow sincerely; we feel deeply inside, and it shows. Then, “I am
sorry” is not an intellectual statement, but a gut feeling which affects our physical
being deep inside. This feeling shows externally; then it reinforces the inside
feeling and creates a bridge between the hearts. Sympathy may sound like
condescension; empathy is identification with the person with whom we share the
feeling.

One most rewarding Pastoral experience happened to me when I was Pastor in
Lawrence, about 25 years ago. That was at the wake of a young man, 19 years
old. After conducting the short funeral service, I looked to the young man's father
and mother; and my tears were flowing over. I didn't have to say anything. I
heard many good comments about it later on. What happened that evening
brought me closer to the hearts of my parishioners. When you sincerely feel with
the people and feel it inside, it shows and it heals the wounded hearts.

5 - Better yet than just feeling with, or feeling within, is to do something to alleviate
the pain which we are witnessing. Sometimes this is possible; but most of the
time, it is not. If we can, we should not only feel sympathy and empathy, and
express our feelings sincerely; but we should try to do something about it.

Jesus is the Emmanuel "God with us". He shares all our emotions; He was one like
unto us in everything without sin. Showing empathy is a noble and humane feeling
that is not alien to our Lord, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Lover of
Mankind. And He wasn't satisfied to show empathy. He did something about it. He
told the mother "Do not weep". Then he touched the stretcher. The bearers
stopped. He told the young man: "Young man, I tell you, rise up". And the young
man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

If we identify with Jesus, then we fill our batteries with His compassion and we pour
it in return on those who need it. We don't only feel sorry, we are moved with
empathy and we do something about it. [[I once received $50.00 from a
parishioner "for the starving people in Africa". That was an unsolicited, yet very
thoughtful act of empathy with our hungry brothers of Sudan... I doubled it (big
deal!) and I handed it to Archbishop Antaki when I saw him that year at Rabweh,
Lebanon, during our Melkite Synod. That was no more an empty feeling of pity.
That was doing something about it.]]

How many people cross our way, who are hungry and thirsty physically or
emotionally. How many are spiritually dead. We are invited to reflect the
compassion and empathy of Christ on them. "Lord. make me an instrument of
Your peace!"... This day should not pass without giving us an occasion to show
sympathy and empathy to someone who is in need. Let us feel with and let us
alleviate human misery as we can.

We heard as a conclusion to last Sunday's Gospel, and it is worth repeating: "Be
merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful!" Our mercy and compassion will
help create a better world to live in, a world impregnated with love.

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