The Song of Compassion

“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.”

 Walter Brueggemann

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Perhaps it may be, a Yeats says,

Writing in the turmoil of 1919

Standing in the midst of the muddy and bloody horror of World War I

The looming specter of the Russian Revolution,

and the political turmoil in his own native Ireland.

Perhaps things are spinning aparty

As the world spins

“turning an turning in the widening gyre”

Perhaps indeed

“things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”  (Yeats, Second Coming)

We live in anxious times,

With the rupture of traditional family and societal structures (that’ not all bad)

the loss of collective religious faith,

and erosion of a collective sense of purpose

Perhaps, in the time of Trump,

when we sense that the old rules no longer apply

and there’s nothing to replace them

and all we have left are lies, and hate, greed and brutality

it is true

that “some rough beast… slouches to Bethlehem to be born”

and we are left, watching its ponderous progress

as hate flourishes

and racism explodes

as fear dominates

a cruelty increases

We are left watching as inequity and injustice grow

This is a time of looming darkness

This ADVENT

This time of waiting

And yet, we feel the call to resist the growing darkness

The imagery of Advent, the light shining in the darkness

Flickering, but hopefully

Ever growing

“But how!” we cry

And we stand perplex and vulnerable

O Sacred Children

We are not helpless

We have the power of the universe at our command

We have that which can transform

We have love

Not love as a vague romantic notion

But love as sacrifice and expenditure

And love is released first through compassion

It is sparked as we see and feel, the pain of others

As we participate in hunger, and fear

Rejection and exclusion

And then our souls offended, say “enough, no more”

“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism,

for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously,

that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural

but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.” (Walter Brueggemann)

How do we celebrate Advent?

How do we seek to prepare for the arrival

Not of the rough beast

But of the child

We shall sing the Sacred song of Hope

The song of compassion

In this strange land (Psalm 137)