During seminary I received my first pair of reading glasses. My eyes literally grew tired of trying to read the small print of commentaries. That first pair of glasses gave me new lens through which to see the printed word. Everything became clearer. Today, I wonder about the lens that we see through which create our life perspectives. There are a many things that influence our vision of life. The cultural attributes and characteristics have great influence upon us. Education bears influence as a wider world perspective is learned and experienced. Faith, family, friendship, expectations (imposed by others or by self) dreams, hope, television, accepted norms of society all impact our world view.
I was at a neuroscience lecture the week I wrote this devotional. The science of brain function can pinpoint within the brain, the hippocampus where the flight and fight response resides. That was so necessary in the historic caveman days is located. Now the threats to folks are often more social than the fear of survival from violent attacks by the pterodactyls. However, the fight and flight response is still the same. It takes 6 seconds for response to move from emotional to the logical section of the brain. Within these 6 seconds we can control how we will react in each social or physical circumstance. It is here in these 6 second we begin to develop our faith response to relationships and environmental stimulus.
Compassion
The lens through which we see and live during these 6 seconds is of primary importance. This week’s spiritual discipline of compassion can in fact become the lens through which the third way of life may be lived beyond flight or fight. The word compassion comes from the Latin derivation compati which means to suffer with. This is so much more than just a moment in time when one’s heart is pierced with pity, sympathy, charity, and mercy for the other. To suffer with another is to walk beside and with another naming and claiming that we too have the same roots of imperfection and humanity in our own lives and can join the other in their suffering.
Compassion is not just about getting bogged down in feeling bad for the suffering of others, it recognizes the imago dei, the image of God in the other and can see the woundedness of Christ’s suffering in the other as God brings about possible new life. The gift of compassion has the potential to become the lens through which we experience all of life; that is events, relationships, conversations, news highlights from a God’s eye view. Looking tenderly at the other and noticing their great giftedness and their brokenness of heart and suffering influences our response when pain, suffering, lies, and betrayal are inflicted upon us.
Scripture
Palm Sunday, is coming when we remember and join Jesus as he rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. In John 12:12-19, (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+12%3A12-19&version=NRSV ) this Palm Sunday text follows several impassioned outpourings of love by Jesus. Previously Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, Mary anointed his feet with the most expensive and extravagant perfume, a Man born blind received his sight at the power of Jesus Word and laying on of hands. Jesus had by this point talked with his disciples several times informing them that he would be going away. Not just going away, but that he would be handed over in death. The scribes and Pharisees have tried thus far unsuccessfully to trap Jesus, run him off and even began plans for his death.
It is into this cultural environment, with crowds thrilled at the miraculous things Jesus had done and the ever-growing threat to the religious leadership that Jesus mounted a donkey and rode into Jerusalem. I wonder what lens he viewed life from that day so long ago. Was his head swelled with pride and self-satisfaction as the crowds cheered and celebrated his arrival? Did he wave like a homecoming king to his dear friends? Could dread have filled him for the coming days when his physical life would come to a violent end? I believe not! Just how did Jesus’ wide-angle lens and view upon humanity impact his ability to entered Jerusalem?
Jesus’ Wide-Angle Lens
Could Jesus have gazed upon the crowd, the religious leaders, and the disciples that day with immense compassion? Knowing that the religious leaders were so threatened by the new thing that God was doing, did Jesus suffer with them in their limited world view? Compassion could have caused Jesus to embrace the crowds with their hopes unfulfilled, expectations and innate desire for control and survival. As Jesus gazed upon the disciples did his heart break knowing that for a moment in time (three days that is) the disciples would suffer immense sorrow over his death.
Compassion gifts one with courage to face what looks impossible with love and without judgment or temptation to retaliate an eye for eye. The third way of God may cause the other to dig deeper into resentment, like those that plotted Jesus’ death. Or possibly the compassionate way of Christ cracked open the brokenhearted so that they too became fertile ground for the tender shoots of Divine inclusion and love to bear fruit as the apostolic age began. Becoming a life of compassion opens God-size possibility.
Today’s Prayer Practice – Photo Pilgrimage
For the creative arts prayer practice this week, you will take a photo pilgrimage. If you can stroll or walk through either a nature or urban area, you will need to take with you a camera. A cell phone with photo capability is awesome for this prayer, or possibly if you are a photography buff you may have a high-resolution camera to capture pictures.
Taking a long loving look at people, places, and things provides an opportunity to imagine how God sees with the lens of compassion all aspects of the created order of life. This contemplative gaze looks beyond the surface presentation of life so that we can notice the emerging imago deo all of creation. The prayerful pilgrim gains freedom to look with and for new and diverse perspectives, notice light and shadows, and focus upon the potential of seeing life through an expanded lens of compassion.
If you have limited options of mobility, you may choose to create a photo pilgrimage online. To do this first discern what kinds of pictures you will look for in your image browser. Will you make a collage of urban plight and human suffering? Could your heart be drawn to the wildlife on the Serengeti? Once you discern the topic of your pictorial browsing, then seek out numerous photos that speak to you heart for prayer. You may choose to make a computer-generated collage so that you may view all the pictures in one place.
For further instructions on photo pilgrimage, please see pages 155-156 in Spiritual Direction and the Metamorphosis of Church. A Wesleyan Foundery Book, 2020.
Enjoy praying.
