Monday of the
Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 8:12-17; Luke 13:10-17)
An article in the October edition of First Things offers a perspective for reading today’s gospel. Entitled “Empathy is not Charity,” the
article criticizes the contemporary urgency to feel the pain of the
suffering. Such empathy often enough
leads to actions that undermine truth and justice. It may cause, for example, one to counsel a woman
with a problem pregnancy to have an abortion.
Charity will move us to help the woman bear the child with all necessary
support.
Jesus shows like concern for the woman who has been
crippled for eighteen years. He does not
feel her pain but removes it. Of course, the synagogue leader accuses him of
working on the Sabbath which in Deuteronomy celebrates God’s gift of liberation
from slavery. But Jesus knows that he
has not infringed any Sabbath rule.
Rather he has liberated the woman from oppression – an action quite in synch
with the Sabbath.
We should not say that it is wrong to empathize with
others. Often trying to feel the pain of
another gives us a true understanding of the situation that we face. But we must realize that charity – the purest
form of love – is not primarily taking away the other’s pain. It is a matter of doing what is best for the one
suffering as well as for everyone else.
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