Written by Matthew Dickerson, a contemporary American professor and writer.
Compassion—when empathy moves us to action—is close to the heart of God, the example of Jesus, and the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Compassion requires both emotional vulnerability and often personal self-sacrifice. It can be uncomfortable…Sympathy is an understanding of the difficulties experienced by somebody who walks in different shoes than our own: the struggles that person is going through or the sorrows they have experienced. Sympathy is, in a way, a first step toward caring. Empathycan be understood as an even further step. Empathy is when we not only try to understand what somebody else is experiencing, but we actually work to feel what they are feeling. Whereas sympathy might be a mere intellectual exercise, empathy is personal and risky, involving a vulnerability to let ourselves invest emotionally in what somebody else is going through. Empathy is a step of love. It is also an imitation of what Jesus did through the incarnation: choosing to enter into our world in human form, in all its vulnerability and risk, fully experiencing all the temptations and sufferings of our human condition … Jesus’ compassion was certainly costly. But it is what we are called to do…Take some time to put yourself in the shoes of somebody whose life is different than yours, and who may be experiencing hardship. It could be a refugee fleeing violence, or somebody who is homeless, or somebody who works with or for you experiencing personal challenges. Let empathy move your actions to those of compassion.
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. [Colossians 3:12]
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