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Compassion is restored throughout the ages.Topics: Compassion
One of the first followers of the Lord to rediscover the Lord's passion
for the poor was St. Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182, the son of
one of the most well-to-do families in Assisi. Occasional incidents in his
younger days revealed some intolerance in his heart, but it was on one
of those occasions that the seed of his future transformation was
planted. One day while working intently in his father's cloth shop
arranging the fabric, a beggar came to the door and asked for alms in
God's name. Francis rudely kicked the man out, but at once he regretted
his actions and followed the man to offer his apologies. This event
replayed in his mind over and over again.
Later on in his life, during a brief stay in Rome, he took out his money,
took off his garments, and gave them all to the poor. On another
occasion he encountered a leper in Assisi and, instead of fleeing as
most villagers did, he went up to him and embraced him. He did all this
despite the scorn of his friends and his father's great disappointment. His
steps before him were ordered; that leper represented Christ Himself! So
Francis renounced his father's possessions and went on to work among
the poor and leprous people of his time.
Here are the oft-quoted words of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow charity;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and
Where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
As noted earlier, Madame Guyon was one of the most outstanding
spiritual writers of the 1600s. She was known for her deep spiritual
perception and for her pursuit of union with God. Besides her spiritual
writings, she also was known for her compassion for the poor and
deprived. Read her own words from her autobiography:
"In acts of charity I was assiduous. So great was my tenderness for the
poor, that I wished to supply all their wants. I could not see their
necessity, without reproaching myself for the plenty I enjoyed. I deprived
myself of all I could to help them. The best at my table was distributed
among them. Being refused by others, they all came to me.
"God used me to reclaim several from their disorderly lives. I went to visit
the sick, to comfort them, to make their beds. I made ointments, dressed
their wounds, buried their dead. I furnished tradesmen and mechanics
wherewith to keep their shops. My heart was much opened toward my
fellow-creatures in distress."
In the late 1600s and 1700s the Pietistic Movement swept across Eastern
Europe and eventually touched the eastern shores of North America.
This was a reform movement predominantly within the Lutheran church.
One of its central figures, August Francke, insisted that they place
greater value on a "drop of true love more than a sea of knowledge." On
the foundation of this movement the Quakers in the 1800s caught the
passion of Jesus for the poor and the marginalized of society. They
insisted that the quiet inward life become inevitably associated with its
active outward expression in the world of affairs. And so it was.
Elizabeth Fry rose above her own natural fears and invaded the
women's section of the Newgate Prison in London in the early 1800s.
She succeeded in changing the lives of the "savage, and drunken, unruly
women."
The Quakers were the first to reach out to the mentally ill. Instead of
treating them as animals, they established a retreat for them. There these
compassionate people treated them as guests and removed the typical
physical restraints.
Quakers also took a strong stand against slavery. As early as the late
s they were lifting their voice up against the degradation of human
slavery.
"John Woolman would often decline to accept hospitality in a home
where slaves were kept or would insist upon reimbursing slaves for
work done for him personally."
"A Mennonite, Peter Plockhoy, issued the first public statement in North
America against Slavery in connection with regulations for a colony on
the Delaware: 'No lordships or servile slavery shall burden our company.'
"
One of the great lights of social reform in the chronicles of history is the
British statesman William Wilberforce. Wilberforce would become the key
political leader in the abolition of the slave trade. He was a tiny "shrimp"
of a man, but he was gigantic in his courage and tenacious in his
struggle against a very popular trade. It was a cause that he believed in
and to which he dedicated all of his adult life.
William was strongly influenced in his early life by his aunt and uncle
who were very much involved in Methodism. He would latter declare to
his mother that George Whitefield had put something of a fire in his heart
that would remain forever. The Methodist had taught him the importance
of getting involved in a cause larger than oneself.
For William the cause would be to forever remove the blight of slavery
from the face of British history. The fight would be long and arduous,
demanding every ounce of energy his soul possessed. There would be
times of failure and deep depression when it seemed that he would
never win this war. John Newton, the redeemed ex-slave trader, would
be a source of tremendous encouragement for Wilburforce in those
times of discouragement.
On the fateful day of February 23, 1807, Wilberforce stepped into the
Parlimentary House knowing that this was the day. For more than 40
years William had led the charge against the slave trade. This day would
be the climax of a life's work. Sir Andrew Romilly stood up to address
the House. Every eye was upon him. In referring to the conquests of
Napoleon at that time, he would begin:
" 'And when I compare...those pangs of remorse,' continued Romilly,
'with the feelings of which must accompany my honorable friend
[speaking of Wilberforce] from this House to his home, after the vote
tonight shall have confirmed the object of his human and unceasing
labors; when he retires...to his happy and delightful family, when he lays
himself down on his bed, reflecting on the innumerable voices that will be
raised in every quarter of the world to bless him, how much more pure
and perfect felicity must he enjoy, in the consciousness of having
preserved so many millions of his fellow creatures, than-"]
Romilly could not finish the speech because the whole House erupted in
an ovation of honor for Wilberforce.
At the end of the day the House passed by a vote of 283 to 6 to abolish
the slave trade.
From his deathbed, John Wesley wrote concerning Wilberforce, "I see
not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that
execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of
human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will
be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you,
who can be against you?"
John Wesley himself was one of the first to move outside the confines of
the church building and reach out to the poor and destitute. He made this
entry in his Journal on Saturday, March 31:
"In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could
scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the
fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life
(until very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and
order, that I should have thought of souls almost a sin if it had not been
done in a church."
John Wesley was actively involved in reaching out to the unemployed. In
fact, at the age of 82 he spent whole days walking about to collect
money for the poor. George Whitefield, the man who introduced Wesley
to field preaching among the poor, maintained an orphanage for the
abandoned in the state of Georgia.
Moving into the 1900s, we have many examples of people who
abandoned the luxuries of a capitalistic society to embrace the needy of
the Third World. No one else stands out more than the late Mother
Theresa.
She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, Yugoslavia
(now Macedonia). In 1928 she decided to become a nun and went to
Dublin, Ireland, to join the Sisters of Loreto From there she went to the
Loreto convent in Darjeeling, India.
In 1929 she began to teach geography at St. Mary's High School for Girls
in Calcutta. In those days the streets of Calcutta were crowded with
beggars, lepers, and the homeless. Unwanted infants were regularly
abandoned on the streets or in garbage bins. In 1946, Mother Teresa felt
the need to abandon her teaching position to care for the needy in the
slums of Calcutta.
Initially focusing her efforts on poor children in the streets, Mother
Teresa taught them how to read and how to care for themselves. Many
former students of St. Mary's eventually joined her order. Each girl who
joined was required to devote her life to serving the poor without
accepting any material reward in return.
In the mid-1950s, Mother Teresa added aid to lepers in her work. The
Indian government gave her order 34 acres near the city of Asansol.
There she established a leper colony, called Shanti Nagar (Town of
Peace). Within a few years her work expanded beyond India, and the
Sisters of Charity opened centers throughout the world for lepers, the
blind, the disabled, the aged, and the dying, as well as schools and
orphanages for the poor.
The recipient of various awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother
Teresa used all the money that accompanied those awards to fund her
centers. By 1990 more than 3,000 nuns belonged to the Missionaries of
Charity, operating various centers in 25 different countries.
F.B. Meyer, a Baptist minister, exemplified what welfare at the local
church level can do. While at Melbourne Hall, Leicester, in the 1880s,
Meyer combined evangelism with social programs. Some of his main
thrusts were rehabilitating ex-prisoners and helping people whose lives
were being ruined by alcohol. Meyer saw alcohol as the typical cause of
crime, but he soon discovered what a difficult time men coming out of
prison had in finding jobs. So he set up businesses to employ these men.
"F.B. Meyer - Firewood Merchant" is only one example.
There are a few illustrations in this present time of those who have
maintained the Lord's passion for the poor. The YWAM Mercy ships go
from port to port throughout the world delivering medical help and food
for the poor. The Salvation Army continues to give food and relief to
those in the inner cities around the world. Teen Challenge centers have
reached out to those whose lives have been destroyed by drugs,
alcohol, and other addictions. There are some city-churches that have
not abandoned the inner city, but have remained there as a source of
relief and strength to those fighting the battle of poverty, unemployment
and crime.
In spite of these few examples of Christian concern for the poor, the
advance of technology in our generation has served only to increase the
gap between the confines of the Church and the need in the streets. We
preach gospel messages from our safe TV studios to the faceless
masses of our nation. We post our "message of hope and concern" over
the lines of the Internet, hoping that some lost soul will be "touched."
Now there's an unusual word to use in this American culture of
technological evangelism. This is not the same "touch" that we saw in
the life of the Master. Can a cyber-touch alleviate the pain and heartache
of those trapped in poverty, addictions, and hopeless loneliness?
We nestle down in the comfortable pews of our richly constructed
church buildings where we enjoy the security of a safe environ. There
we pray for the poor and needy ones in our community. Our prayers are
quite fervent, but our actions are anemic. The time has come to break out
of our comfortable buildings and places of refuge to once again engage
ourselves in the world for whom our Master gave up all the "comfort"
and glory of His heavenly dwelling to seek and to save.
May the Lord restore the touch of compassion and power in this day!