Archiwum Spojrzenia Serca

In the 1990s, our Mother General Helen McLaughlin RSCJ wrote in her letter to the Society about „couch compassion.” It is a kind of compassion that we experience while sitting comfortably in front of the TV in warm slippers and cry over the fate of the world, but it does not touch us deeply and does not reach our hearts. When we change the channel it goes away.

The phenomenon that I observe today is somewhat similar, but it seems to me much more dangerous. I called it „event compassion”. It is similar to couch compassion, because it is also driven by media, playing on our emotions. However, when it takes place in the internet age, it begins to have a new look.

How do you recognise the symptoms of event compassion? Here are some steps.

Aggression

Anger and frustration arise in you, the focus is on looking for those guilty. You get caught up in the basic media manipulation in which the message is prepared in a way to present the victim and perpetrator (sometimes a person, sometimes an institution, and sometimes the whole society). What’s more, in the same case there may be an extremely different media message depending on the media option. The goal, however, is the same – gain your interest and arouse extreme emotions.

Conviction of your own righteousness 

You give unequivocal judgements. You are convinced of being right and knowing the only truth. You look one-sidedly and demand that everyone thinks like you. In an extreme situation, you feel ill will towards those who think differently and insult them on online forums. You fight for the guilty to be punished and you have no space for mercy. You also do not notice the good that’s happening because you focus on what’s wrong.

Multiplication of events

You get together in groups that support an idea. You join an event on FB, change your profile photo, go to a demonstration. However, you do not fight for a cause that is really important to you, but you jump from one action to another depending on what is currently popular. You have a sense of making a difference because you join a large group of people who think similarly, but you really only help the media to promote clicks on new articles. Tipically you forget about the case when the media goes silent. Then you are ready to fight for another one.

How can you cure event compassion? Here are some ideas.

Leave it to Jesus

If any matter moves your heart, do not speak publicly about it. Focus on prayer, sharing your feelings only with your loved ones. Try to empathise with the victim, do not deal with the aggressor at all. Leave Jesus to save the world and take care of justice. Do not be provoked by online discussions.

See good and forgive

Take care to see good even in a very difficult situation. Thank God for it. If you can do something to develop it, do it (preferably without publicity). If not, continue to pray for this intention. Ask for conversion for the perpetrators, but above all for the transformation of your heart and the gift of forgiveness.

Reach out to people

See if by any chance, while fighting for justice in the world, you have not neglected the people you have around you. Maybe your neighbour needs help, a colleague from work or someone from your family. Mercy in practice consists of very simple everyday gestures, not great events. Get together friends from your parish or community and do something together for the local people instead of looking for allies on the internet. Follow Jesus, who was always interested in the person beside him, as if he did not care about the Roman occupation.

Make your reality more objective

Do not believe everything written on your favourite website or said in your favourite TV station. Be discerning and get to the facts. Read something in the newspaper you don’t like, see the event from a different angle. Only then can you try to judge the situation, but always with humility and awareness that you do not know the whole truth.

The Good Shepherd is one of the names of Jesus that speaks best to me. There is so much tenderness in the image of God carrying a man like a lamb on his shoulders. Often in prayer I see myself at the feet of my Shepherd, where I can feel safe and loved.

The scenery of lambs and shepherds reminds me of another image. Once I imagined what the most intimate part of me looks like, where I am completely free, where success and failure do not count, where my sin and weakness are irrelevant, where nothing prevents me from living fully, where God lives in me. In my imagination it was a big meadow, on which I gallop with all the power in my hoofs and with wind in my furry ears. That’s a piece of my Heaven.

Always after the fourth Easter Sunday, that is, the Sunday of the Good Shepherd, we have a week of prayer for vocations. Of course, we pray that the Church would not lack the pastors of souls and that there will be many to lead us to God, but for me it is also a time of prayer for everyone to discover their place in the flock. It is a time of thinking about the freedom that a person gets when he finds his unique path to holiness and decides to follow it with courage. This year, I especially remember in prayer those who continue to look for this path and discern where they are attracted by God and their own heart.

May everyone discover his inner sheep that is happily running through the meadows of life, but also walking through the dark valleys with confidence that the Shepherd in nearby.

This week I had the opportunity to eat breakfast with a girl from Rwanda and Slovakia. I learned then about the existence of an app that inspired me a lot – it’s called Be my eyes. It was created so that the people with good sight can help those who have a problem with simple everyday activities, because they are blind. After registering, you can be called (via video call) by a person who needs help, for example, sorting the laundry or reading the expiration date on a bottle of milk. A simple idea combined with the use of modern technology is a piece of Heaven on Earth for me. I can be somebody’s eyes!

This year, I am delighted with the Easter sequence. I sang it with great joy during the last weekend with young people who came to discern their way of life. When searching for your place in the world, there is nothing more important than hearing Jesus inviting you to live life to the fullness and to proclaim the Good News. In the sequence, a large piece is devoted to Mary Magdalene, who is sent by Jesus to the Apostles.

Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the road?
“I saw the tomb of the living Christ
and the glory of his rising, the angelic witnesses,
the Shroud and the clothes.
Christ my hope is arisen:
into Galilee, he will go before his own.”

Not only Mary, and the other women who were with her, are sent with the mission of proclaiming the resurrection. This is a task for each of us. Everyone gets an invitation saying: „Be my voice” and can generously answer with their life. And this is not a simple task, because unlike a blind person who is aware that he needs kind help from others, the world often thinks, that there is no need for God. Therefore, let our voice be full of humbleness and tenderness. We need not to shout at anyone, but to show by our testimony that Jesus heals, frees and gives Life.

There is something amazing about being a tool in God’s plan! Do you feel it too?

The resurrection is not only the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and that eternal life is also waiting for us. Resurrection happens every day among us, but often we cannot notice it, because it is inevitably connected with death.

It would be a lot easier if Jesus had just come down from the cross, if he had shown that death does not have to come, that it can be skipped in some way. If the victory was spectacular and leaving no doubt, it would be much easier to believe. The only problem is that our God does not works that way. From the very beginning, he comes silently, as if unnoticed, but to those who believe, He gives power that is greater than all human wisdom. It is no different with the resurrection. It comes under cover of the night, there is nothing obvious in it, nothing we could call evidence. Death is much more certain and documented. The crucifixion of Jesus is a historical fact, and the resurrection …

When something collapses in our lives, it is usually obvious. Our failures, disappointments, pain and losses. Sometimes we hope that God will save us from it, we pray for it and we trust that the storm will pass us. Meanwhile, God’s favourite way of working is resurrection – rebirth after death. Therefore, we can be sure that wherever all hope dies, where there is nothing more to count on, where we see the end, at some point He will enter. Most likely, we will not recognise Him, as those two going to Emmaus, because we will have a different end of the story in our minds. When, however, we do recognise Him in this particular situation, our hearts will be so moved that we will not be able to sit still. At once we will know what to do. This will be our personal resurrection.