Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Charity and Compassion

Working my way through Paul Countinho's book 'How Big Is Your God', I've come to a place where he contrasts charity with compassion. Both are good, he says and I agree; but we ought to strive for compassion. And I agree; but it's hard to do.

Most people practice charity - I even stuffed a few dollars in the Salvation Army bucket the other day. And that's a good thing to do; but aren't we called to do more? As a Christian - a follower of Christ, someone who tries to be like Christ - am I not called to something deeper?

Coutinho talks about compassion as a sort of natural giving of oneself, without counting the cost or considering how good/bad this will look on us. In fact, it's more than a natural giving, it's a divine giving of oneself. It's a way of letting God's divine life flow through us and spread to others; it connects us all. I'm not really that good at explaining it all, but I can see how compassion is in line with being Christ-like. And in the season of Advent and Christmas, that is surely a good revelation.

Do not stop practicing your charity, but pray for the grace of being more and more compassionate. Because when you have a relationship with God, when you are compassionate, you will experience God everywhere. When you have a relationship with a compassionate God, good things happen, wonderful things happen. In compassion, I celebrate the good, because that good is also a part of me. When some person in the world does something extraordinary, I am drawn to that person, and I also feel extraordinary. I share in that experience because that person is part of me. If someone is celebrating, I celebrate with that person. If someone is hurting, I hurt with that person. So I am part of every person's life, and each person is part of my life. Experiencing that human interconnectedness through our divine connection is the transition from charity to compassion.

Ahh... refreshing

Refreshing - that's how it feels to find 'How Big Is Your God?' by Paul Coutinho, SJ. But in addition to refreshing, he also challenges readers to expand their view of God. I'll be reading and blogging about this book for a while, but here is a passage in one of the early chapters that caught my attention:

Meister Eckhart, the great medieval mystic, believed that everyone needs religion as a well to take them to the river of God's love and divine life. This is a wonderful analogy. Wells are fed by rivers of life-giving water, but how often the well - and not the water it can provide - becomes the goal of our lives. Since we are seeking a big God, let's ask ourselves: has the well become to goal of our lives?

We fortify our well; we decorate it and adorn it with with elaborate and beautiful liturgies; we say "Look at our well. Look at what we've done and how wonderful it is." And we are never taken to the river. The purpose of the well is to take us to the river. The river gives us freedom and salvation. Everyone needs religion, yes. Religion is a means to freedom, but not an end in itself. Religion helps us find the river of life and the river of freedom, and it's in the river that we experience the the love of God and divine life.

In Catholicism we can get overly focused on the well - on liturgy, canon law, the catechism, social teaching, this-or-that movement in the church, translations, liturgical music, and so on. I have a real concern that many people believe all this 'doing-right' is the goal of the church. People know, deep down inside they know there's more and they long for it. They long for the river that feeds the well. Yet, how prepared are we to go there? Well, it depends on how big you think your God is.

I'm not a good reviewer, but I can tell you what I like and don't like. And I like this book a lot, enough to add to my Recommend Reading list!