Compassion

A few months ago I read a compelling book called "Follow Me to Freedom" by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. In a world dying for social justice and true freedom, this books inspires change in positive and effective ways. Many people and organizations fight for change having passion and compassion for a cause and end result but little compassion for the individuals affected. Genuine compassion for individuals is what we need more of in life. This is a quote by Henri Nouwen placed in the book that I had written down in my sketchbook and just ran across it again... thought I'd share...


"Compassion grows with the inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you. This partnership cuts through all walls which might have kept you separate. Across all barriers of land and languages, wealth and poverty. Knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, and destined for the same end. With this compassion you can say, 'In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hand. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile. Their ability to torture is in me, too; their capacity to forgive I find also in myself. There is nothing in me that does not belong to them too; nothing in them that does not belong to me. In my heart, I know their yearning for love, and down to my entrails I can feel their cruelty. In another's eyes I see my plea for forgiveness, and in a hardened frown I see my refusal. When someone murders, I know that I too could have done that, and when someone gives birth, I know that I am capable of that as well. In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share love and have life and death.'"
-Henri Nouwen


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