Sanctuaries of Christmas - Day 12: COMPASSION

In thinking about my final Christmas sanctuary, a lot of ideas came to mind of qualities and experiences we seek out and embrace particularly during this season.  Three came to mind that seem to get at some similar things:  Kindness, Love, Peace.  In the midst of what often seems like a myriad of threats, anxieties, selfishness, unrest in the world, we yearn for some space to reconnect with benevolence and trust in our humanity.  I will call this last of our sanctuaries COMPASSION.  We yearn for a space where we can share compassion – giving it to others and receiving it for ourselves.

Our Christmas season often focuses us on those ideals: love, kindness, empathy, forgiveness, transcending differences and divisions, overcoming our violent tendencies and conflicts, but sometimes, quite frankly, it gets sappy.   That’s why I like the word “compassion.”  It means a kind of connection or affection using “com-” which means “with,”   but we’re “with” each other in our “passion” – or suffering. 

Now, we might identify what we’re going through at the present moment as suffering… but often not.  We may just be going though our usual stuff. Yet how much of our yearning for affection, for kindness, for forgiveness, safety, for easing of conflicts and relief from fears or violence, has to do deep down with ways we are suffering - maybe in big ways, maybe only in small ways – but things that add up over time?  Compassion sums it up for me. I want someone to be with in my passion and in theirs.

We know that burdens feel lighter when they are shared.  We know when we feel a sense of safety with someone who understands us.  We know when we feel the companionship of someone who loves and accepts us. We know fears subside, challenges are minimized, and we feel strong and capable.  We all need a sanctuary where we can be authentic and vulnerable.  And, perhaps this is the most profound sanctuary of all.   Christmas offer us this sanctuary with the promise of Jesus’ birth being a sign of “God-with-us.” 

One thing I’ve realized in my months of “personal sabbatical” is that my ministry in churches has been the primary means, the framework, for the way I offer and experience compassion.  It is the way I have shared with people my and their passions. For some reason, God has given me this time without the church, and I’ve been confronted with the question of how do I offer and receive compassion now?  What framework do I use?  How can I find and create the sanctuary of compassion for myself and others in a new way?  I haven’t figured it out yet.  This is the question with which I enter 2014. 

 

One ending note now on my Christmas sanctuaries. These sanctuaries of  Tradition & Remembrance, Home, Mystery, Wonder, Darkness, Light, Hope & Joy, Giving, Meeting God, and Compassion, I relate to Christmas only because this season, its story and significance, gives us an excuse to concentrate our yearning for these sanctuaries.  But, they are sanctuaries we all need and seek all year round, throughout our lives. We short-change ourselves and each other if we somehow store them away like our Christmas decorations in the garage until we can haul them out again.  My hope is that both you and I might remember to open the doors a little wider to those sanctuaries for each other when we meet. Perhaps we can help each other to recognize when we are in particular need of one of these sanctuaries, and offer it to each other.  Hmm, is that a New Year’s resolution?  Maybe.