One person who did a masterful job of finding spiritual meaning in ‘compassion’ is Matthew Fox, the Episcopalian priest (who was kicked out of the Roman Catholic Church). In his 1979 book titled A Spirituality named Compassion, he started by talking about the way joy shows the difference between true compassion and mere pity. Then he quoted an old German proverb used in Max Scheler’s The Nature of Sympathy:
“A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved; but a joy shared is a joy doubled.” (p. 3)
Fox considered compassion to be our “richest energy source.” And yet, in our period of history, “compassion remains an energy source that goes largely unexplored, untapped and unwanted … almost in exile.” And that problem makes everyone into victims -- “and all dying from lack of compassion.” But he deeply believed that, as hard as it is do, all people were capable of learning compassion -- as a better way of living, “a more fun-filled and justice-oriented way.”
He quoted 1 John 3:17-18 to show the Early Church’s connection between justice and the agape of God,
"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but closed his heart to him, how can the [agape] of God be in him? Dear children, our [agape] is not to be just words or mere talk, but actions and in truth."
When I look back all the way throughout the last 2,000 years, I find it tragic that something as centrally important to the start of Christianity as agape -- somehow got lost. It is now absolutely crucial to the future of Christianity that we bring agape out of its deep exile and find its meaning for our period of history. This recovery is so crucial that Christianity does not have much of a future without doing that.
When agape was mentioned in the 12th and 16th Centuries, the English word used to translate it was ‘charity’ because of the understanding that the highest form of agape leads to works of feeding, sheltering, clothing, educating, counseling, comforting, forgiving, and providing the necessities of drink and medicine. Did that mean that the system of justice needed to be set up in society so that people who did have those necessities were able to receive them? And of course we remember how Jesus used the Parable of the Good Samaritan to show that agape had to lead to actions of helping people, even if those people were being discriminated against by the society. These were seen to be acts of justice-making.
Unfortunately, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, many people in positions of power and authority felt threatened by too many people receiving such help to lift them out of poverty, so processes were set in motion to destroy the good meaning involved with the word ‘charity.’ But we now know that agape means all that and so much more.
Even today there are many people who are so threatened by talk about justice that they will rant and rave against churches that preach about the need for Christians to work for social justice. That is why it’s so important to keep in mind the connections between agape and justice-making.
But the Apostle Paul understood this fully, as we see in the way he put together the 2 Great Commandments from Jesus: “The whole of the law is summarized in a single command: ‘Have [agape] for your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal. 5:14) Agape is what brings together our neighbor and our God. Others in the Early Church also understood that it is our works of agape, shown in helping others, that will constitute the dwelling of God among us. (1 Jn. 4:12)
