MEDITATION:
Written by Trevor Hudson, a contemporary South African pastor, author, and speaker.
The picture of the prodigal son’s father shows his heart being filled with compassion. When something is full, there is no room for anything else. So, whatever else there is in God’s heart will flow compassionately towards us, whether it be God’s anger for our inhumanity to one another … I think God responds to that with anger because of God’s compassion. I’m not going soft here in the sense of, you know, a kind of “anything kind of goes.” Because God’s heart is filled with compassion, that has profound consequences for God’s response to injustice and to our own deceptive ways of living that hurt others. But we must never think, well, God is compassionate towards us until we go too far and then his compassion turns into something else. Even his justice is an expression of his compassion and his love. He doesn’t bid us to come and die so that we can then become lovable. He bids us to come and die because he loves us and wants to free us from that which enslaves us. It’s always that. The direction is always from love…Think of Paul’s saying that God has flooded our hearts through the Holy Spirit with God’s love. So, I’m living much more fully than ever before, and I want to invite the reader to do this, to remember that God’s compassion is already in us. Our hearts have been flooded by God’s compassion. And so, there is already, in my life, a reservoir of compassion. So, there’s not a case of: I have to make myself compassionate. But could I come at this a little bit differently? I don’t have to manufacture compassion. I don’t have to try to be compassionate. But maybe I can notice what blocks it, and then just let it flow, naturally. I don’t have to change gears, and now switch on God’s compassion in this encounter, but what does it mean to let the reservoir of compassion flow?
PRAYER:
Written by Scott Cairns, a contemporary American poet, professor, librettist, and spiritual essayist.
Beloved Lover of humankind, soften our hearts so that we too may have compassion for those who suffer, so that we too may give gladly of our time and treasure to those in need. May nothing we do be done in strikfe, but in confidence and in peace. May nothing we do be done in foolish pride, but in lowliness of mind let us esteem others as greater than ourselves. May we esteem the needs of others as greater than our own. May we look with kindness and compassion upon their burdens. May our hearts become as tender wombs prepared to receive your grace, that in due time may we bring forth the joyful fruit of your Spirit. May this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. That being God he made himself impoverished, and took upon himself the form of a servant, humbled himself, and was obedient unto death — yet a death that has brought all to life. May we suspect our own power to say yes to whatever our God asks of us. We ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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