Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed himself as being ‘merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,’ (Exo. 34:6-7). God now reveals his true face in Jesus of Nazareth who incarnated the mercy of God throughout his mortal life, and this was shown in countless episodes of his public life.
Compassion for the crowds
‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (…) When he went ashore, Jesus saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. (…) I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ (Matt. 9:36, 14:14, 15:32)
The Greek word ‘splagchnizomai’ used here to mean ‘to have compassion’ has the deepest meaning when it refers to mercy, commiseration or having pity for someone. It comes from ‘splanxna’, which means ‘the inward parts’, and describes the degree of compassion that moves and shakes a person to the depth of his being. Having goose bumps would probably be the closest physical manifestation of this feeling. Apart from its use in certain parables, it is only used in the gospels in the episodes that we will study here: Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 20:34, Mark 1:41 and Luke 7:13.
The bread of the soul – Jesus feels compassion for the crowd, for people in general, because they walk aimlessly like sheep without a shepherd. Pope Paul VI used to say that the hunger of the spirit is much worse than the hunger of the body. An undernourished spirit can never be independent because it cannot direct itself, thus never achieving self-fulfillment and happiness. Before the errant crowds who had not found the meaning of life, Jesus taught and showed them the way, the truth and the life, and presented himself as the model they needed to follow.
‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way…’ (Isa. 53:6). Jesus gave us the reasons to live, as individual persons and as a people of a flock which he shepherds.
Health – Filled with compassion for human sufferings caused by various diseases, Jesus healed the sick; afflicted by the misery of others, he could not bear to see anyone suffer and so he would promptly put an end to these sufferings.
The Latin word ‘salutem’ meaning salvation is derived from the word ‘salus’ meaning health. They can be used interchangeably as in “una salus victis nullam sperare salutem” meaning “the only salvation for those who have been defeated is not to wait for salvation”, from the poem ‘The Aeneid’ by Virgil. Therefore instead of saying that Jesus is our salvation, we could very well say that Jesus is our health.
As a matter of fact, Jesus spent a great part of his earthly life as a physician, healing many from all kinds of illnesses because without health there is no life. Jesus brought health to our body, health to our psyche, health to our soul and spirit, health to our moral conscience and past life, or in other words, health to our entire being.
The bread of the body – Because of their spiritual hunger, the people were starved for the Lord’s words, for he spoke with authority, therefore they stayed with him for three days but at the end they became bodily hungry. Because of this, Jesus would not dismiss them without first giving them something to eat so to restore their strength for the journey home. The apostles however were thinking of sending them home to look for their own food, but Jesus insisted that the apostles provide it for them…
Primum vivere deinde philosophari – Jesus knew all too well the Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs for human motivation which states that it is only after the basic needs are met that one feels the need to meet the spiritual ones. This being said, Jesus was concerned not just with some aspects of human life, as the disciples would have preferred, but with all its aspects. This is why he could not let the crowd go without first giving them something to eat… Bread for our mouths, and the satisfaction of our material needs are what we also ask for in the ‘Our Father’ prayer that he taught us.
Compassion for the marginalized
‘As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ (..) Jesus stood still and called them, saying, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him.’ (Matt. 20:29-34)
Jericho, the oldest city in the world, was built 9,000 years before Christ. In the Bible, it is the symbol of sin. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us of a man who fell into the hands of thieves on his descent from Jerusalem to Jericho, meaning falling from grace to sin. Jesus wants to save humanity from sin, which is why he went to Jericho, incarnated as a member of the sinful human race. The Gospel tells us that Jesus had already left the city accompanied by those in the crowd who had experienced salvation and were now following him as disciples.
On the fringe of this path that led to salvation, there were two blind men who could not walk along the road because they could not see. They heard others speak of the one who is the way, the truth and the life, and they did not want to miss this unique opportunity to encounter him themselves. as there indeed opportunities that appear only once in life. So in spite of the objections coming from the crowd, who told them to be silent, they cried out even louder clinging to the only lifeline which was the Lord.
Jesus asks them what they want because they may not have wanted to change their lives and may only have wanted a few coins to prolong the life of dependency which they led without having to work; in life many in fact prefer that they are given fish and not a fishing rod to fish. Therefore Jesus respectfully inquires first and only after hearing their response that they do want to change their life and to abandon Jericho i.e. sin, that he is overwhelmed with compassion and heals them.
In the Gospel according to Mark (10:46-52), the blind man is alone and must have been well-known for he had a name, Bartimaeus; he is encouraged by those who initially wanted him to be quiet when Jesus calls him. He is so eager for salvation that he springs up to go to Jesus, throwing off the cloak that covered him and connected him to a life of dependency that he wants to leave behind.
Compassion for the excluded
‘A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ ‘(Mk. 1:40-41)
In those days and to a large extent even today, as I have seen in Ethiopia, there is no disease more terrible than leprosy; it disfigures the face and kills the person socially long before it does so individually. The lepers still today are forced to leave their families and to live in a secluded village for lepers only.
During the time of Jesus, they lived hidden and had to cry out ‘unclean’ if anyone inadvertently approached them in places where they lived. The leper is seen as a living dead, and a dead living. When Jesus sent his disciples on the Mission, he told them to cure the sick and cleanse the lepers, (Matt. 10:8).
The leper in the passage above broke the Law of Moses by approaching Jesus; however instead of sending him away, Jesus responds to his cry of despair with understanding and compassion. Jesus too broke the Law when he touched the leper; for him the leper was not unclean, but rather a desperate soul crying out for help.
Compassion and projection
‘(…) A man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; (…) When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.’ (Lk. 7:12-15)
He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow – By revealing the identity of the deceased, St. Luke uses the least number of words to describe the most painful situation, the most excruciating pain that a human being has to bear. The norm in life is that parents die before their children and not the children before their parents; it is almost against the law of nature that a mother should bury her son. “I will not bury my son, it is my son who will bury me” were the words that a desperate father once said after hijacking the operating room of a hospital, forcing the doctors to do surgery on his son while pointing a gun at them because he did not have the money to pay for the operation.
To make matters even worse, as the Gospel tells us, this woman was already a widow. Her only son was also her only hope of life because women in those days could not own any properties. Jesus saw the situation and even from afar was filled with compassion so that, when approaching her, it was he who took the initiative to address her because he wanted to console and dry her tears without delay.
I believe that Jesus projected on the widow of Nain all the pain that his own mother, Mary, would feel when she herself also being a widow would have to bury him, her only son. Therefore Jesus did for the widow of Nain what he would not be able to do for his own mother. He could dry the tears of the widow of Nain, but he could not dry the tears of his own mother. There is no image more heartbreaking than the Pietà by Michelangelo, the whole antithesis of Christmas, which depicts the adult Jesus dead on the lap of his mother.
Mercy in the face of Misery
‘The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ (…) ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ (…) When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’ ‘(Jn. 8:3-11)
The Jews wanted to put the merciful attitude of Jesus towards sinners in contradiction with the Mosaic Law presented in the Book of Leviticus (20:10), which commanded that such woman be stoned to death. This attitude of Jesus is all the more commendable if we note that after two thousand years such thing still happens in Muslim countries governed by Sharia law.
This is not the first time that Jesus is placed before a dilemma. If he does not condemn her he is transgressing the law; if he condemns her he contradicts his own merciful attitude towards sinners. Like in all other situations, Jesus does not comply with the terms of the dispute; with his silence he invites the accusers and also the woman to do an examination of conscience. Before the insistence of the accusers, Jesus questions their authority as judges. According to St. Augustine, Jesus while writing in the sand with his finger was recalling that God wrote on the tablets of the Ten Commandments also with His finger, thus affirming that he is now the true judge, the one who is more powerful than Moses. In so doing, Jesus neither disrespected the law nor did he contradict his mercy.
Our human tendency is to throw away the baby with the bathwater as we are not able to distinguish between the sin and the sinner. Just like the Pharisees, we also tend to condemn more the sinner than the sin, but the fact is that we too are not exempted from judgment; it is hypocrisy when sinners judge sinners. In this, like in the other episodes, Jesus condemns the sin without condemning the sinner.
This woman was used first as an instrument of pleasure by the one who committed adultery with her then as an object of delight for all those who contemplated her nakedness and rejoiced in her shame. In their attempt to stone her, the Pharisees wanted to use her as a scapegoat for their own sins; people in general wanted to use her as an object for the type of sadistic pleasure that involves all the popular and cruel spectacles of lynching.
Humiliated to see her sin exposed and shamed in front of the crowd, the woman was disgraced for losing her reputation and was thrown to the ground by the weight of the torture that awaited her. It is likely that in the face of so much misery that she herself was probably wishing for death.
After exposing the hypocrisy of those who had exposed her, and after all had acknowledged that they were not innocent either, only two persons remained. As St. Augustine observed, ‘relicti sunt duo miseria et misericordia’ meaning ‘there were left the two, misery and mercy’. In order not to vex her further, without looking at her but with a gentleness, empathy and mercy beyond telling, Jesus addresses her as a person and speaks to her with an immeasurable tenderness, giving her back both her life and her dignity: ‘‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’’
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
