More Compassion
“It is easy enough to be friendly
to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is
the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.” Mahatma Gandhi
We are commanded to love our God
and to love our neighbor. And Ghandi hits this pretty spot on. We aren’t
commanded to simply love those we already love, but to love our neighbor. Each
and every one of our spirit brothers and sisters. That includes everybody who
has ever lived. I think we could all work on that. We should all have the same
goal in mind- getting ourselves, our families, and our neighbor (meaning
everyone) to the Celestial Kingdom. We know that Heavenly Father loves every
one of us very much, and the Celestial Kingdom will be a much happier place
with our entire family, in the Celestial Kingdom with us, all sealed together.
The Lord teaches that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. He wants
each and every one of us to come back home to Him. And as we try to become more
like the Savior, we, like Him, should have more compassion, and align our goals
with His- to bring each of our brothers and sisters home to Him.
President Eyring states of the
Lord, “He expects you to treat every person you meet as a child of God. That is
the reason He commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and to
forgive them.” If we have any negative thought, we should work to fix it. Every
life here on Earth is precious, and we should come to truly understand what
that means.
Richard G Scott said, “Consider
changing from asking for the things you want to honestly seeking what He wants
for you. Then as you learn His will, pray that you will be led to have the
strength to fulfill it.” Heavenly Father wants you to have joy. He wants you to
have a life full of love. But every blessing we have is a product of how we use
our agency. We must choose to pray for charity and compassion and act
accordingly. Heavenly Father will carefully guide you along that path, but you
must first desire it. If you truly seek for compassion, pray for it. Heavenly
Father hears and answers prayers, and He will answer you.
We are never asked to do anything
by ourselves. We have the Savior and His perfect example of compassion to guide
us. During the last week of His life, the Savior walked into the Garden of
Gethsemane and atoned for our sins. He suffered, and later died on the cross,
that we may be forgiven and healed. He did this out of love. Trust me, He was
not saying, I think I want to suffer every bad thing on this earth, and for
every sin ever committed. No. He did this out of love.
John 16:33: These things I have
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
He suffered individually for each
and every one of us so that we may ALL have the chance to return back home to
our Heavenly Parents to dwell with our families for all eternity.
However, Christ set conditions of
faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring
to the end. He expects us to try. He simply allowed us to mess up as much as we
need to come back to Him. We have His grace, but he expects our desire and our
effort.
But, through His compassion and
love, He provided a way back, much easier than living a perfect life. We just
have to accept Him.
This last year, while at BYU, I had the amazing
privilege to work as a security guard at the MTC. While I was in the interview
process, I was told that they had a motto of “Sumus Bon Viri” which roughly
translates to “we’re the good guys.” As I worked there for a year, I discovered
a small part of what that means. And with that, I learned a little bit about
compassion.
While working at the MTC, we were first responders
to almost any emergency. This included clearing out buildings with really loud
fire alarms, or taking charge of a medical situation and dealing not only with
the missionary in need of help, but their curious district as well. I’ve gotten
to offer understanding to the concerned mother trying to drop off a package to her
missionary who I had to say no to. But more importantly, and to a greater
degree, I’ve seen compassion from all the missionaries at the MTC. I’ve
witnessed missionaries wake up at weird hours to welcome a new, late arrival or
to give a blessing to someone in their district. They wave and smile at us when
we look bored out in the security booth. The sisters always apologize a little
too much for accidently staying up too late or any other mishap. I’ve had the
MTC president and other leaders in the MTC care about me and my mission call
despite not really knowing me. Outside of the temple, I’ve never been in a
place where the Spirit dwells so strongly because of the love and compassion
shown in small acts throughout each day.
One of my favorite medical calls was this elder, who
was pretty much fine when we made it across MTC campus into their classroom. He
was laying on the floor after momentarily having his vision go black and having
his hands clench very tight, among other things. He apologized at least every
three sentences he said as we made calls up to the front desk and to the on
call doctor. I kept reassuring him that that’s why we have a job is to respond
to these things, and he wasn’t taking us away from anything important. But he
still felt that he was taking our time and kept apologizing. This selfless
behavior is seen in so many of our missionaries, and it’s a quality I aim to
have.
See, this is really where we can show our
compassion-in the everyday moments in life. Whether that be being a little more
polite to those waiters or drivers on the road, to having genuine interest in
the lives of your family and friends. We can try a little harder to spread the
Spirit in all of our interactions and rid ourselves of that feeling of
entitlement many of us carry around.
However, there is one more aspect of compassion I
would like to cover. We’re living in a world, and a place in the world where we
are surrounded by many different and opposing viewpoints to those of our own.
It is so easy to fall into just accepting everyone’s different perspectives and
avoiding conflict. But is that really what compassion is?
Compassion takes root in having charity- which is
the pure love of Christ. We are to love all of God’s children here on this
Earth as He loves them. In 2 Nephi
26:30, we read, “Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the
Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which
charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing.
Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in
Zion to perish.”
Charity, and by extension, compassion, isn’t
acceptance of evil. It’s concern for the ultimate welfare of the soul. We know
that we’re given trials to come closer to God, and to become more like Him. He
isn’t being vengeful, but rather looking towards our eternal welfare. We can
learn a lot from this. Having compassion, is with the utmost love, empathy, and
understanding, guiding those we love back to the path to our Heavenly home.
So, back to working as a security guard, whenever I reminded
missionaries of the rules, it wasn’t for the sake of being mean. Rather it gave
the missionaries an opportunity to learn and be recipients of more blessings.
In the Book of Mormon, there is a story about a
person named Alma. Now, Alma rebelled against his father and his God. He
admitted to committing the vilest of sins, and, along with his friends,
outright attacked the church. One day, an angel appeared to Alma and commanded
him to cease his evil works. Alma was struck dumb for two days and two nights.
When he arose, he declared he had repented and was redeemed and born of the
Spirit. Later on, Alma referenced this point in his life to his son, saying
“Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I
might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the
exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be
filled with the Holy Ghost.
From this story, we learn a bit about the nature of
compassion. This angel that appeared to Alma acted with complete compassion. We
wouldn’t initially think that would be the case in rebuking someone and
striking them dumb. But it is. Now, I’m not saying to go knock people
unconscious. But I am saying, that because of that action, Alma was able to
repent and receive access to Christ’s atonement. He was able to taste of the
sweet joy that comes from following Christ. What we should learn is that we
should guide others to Christ. We should help everyone come to desire to taste
of eternal life and the joy that we will have therein. However, I think we
should consider ourselves more in the role of Alma, than of the angel, in this
story. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord first, so that we are more
capable of having the Spirit and being filled with compassion.
Christ’s atonement is all encompassing. It is not a
punishment to make us repent, but rather a way to bring us to the fullest joy
we can receive. But the Christ I know isn’t someone who lets everything slide.
He’s the Christ who cleanses the temple. He’s the Christ who curses a fig tree.
But He IS also my Savior who forgives so readily. He supports every good thing
I do. And He wants me to have everything He has. He wants us to partake of
every blessings. He wants us to have every good thing. That is the whole point
of our being on Earth. Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation is full of
compassion. But we have to choose to accept it. And we should encourage our
Spirit siblings to do so as well with the guidance of the Spirit. Who are we to
correct others, when we don’t first love them?
Okay, but day to day, we probably aren’t faced with
those really hard choices of action. Typically, we get to show compassion in a
simple, loving way. And we’re really surrounded by countless opportunities to
practice this every day. Here’s a poem by William Blake
William Blake
"Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?"
"Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?"
Everyone you know has
trials and burdens. If you but look, inviting the Spirit to help, you can find
small everyday actions to show compassion to your fellow man.
I know that the Savior
is filled with infinite charity, love, and compassion for each of us. He has
provided the way for each of us to return to our Heavenly Father. I know this
church is led by Christ. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers each of
our prayers. He, too, loves us infinitely and individually. I know we should
each have our sights set on the temple, and the sealing ordinances found
therein so that we may be with our families for all eternity. I know if we
study the scriptures, we will come to know of our Heavenly Father’s love for
us. I know that if we invite the Spirit into our lives, He will be our constant
companion and will help us on in our mortal journey. I know I have been called
by a prophet of God, who can receive inspiration like prophets of old, to labor
for Him in Peru. I love the gospel, and I love my Savior.
I say these things in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
