At that time: Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them. The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see,and they glorified the God of Israel. Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way.”
The disciples said to him, “Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place to satisfy such a crowd?”
Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few fish.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full.
-- Matthew 15:29-37
Pity
During Advent, in the Catholic Church, the colour of choice is purple for the priest's vestments, altar cloths, three of the four candles on the Advent wreath, etc. The reason for this is that purple is a liturgical colour that represents healing, repentance, and mercy. It is the colour of the stole that a priest wears when he hears confessions or when he administers the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (which calls us to repent of sin, lean on the mercy of God, and be healed in spirit and body). It is also the colour of Lent for this reason. Advent and Lent are kind of sister seasons inasmuch as both are a preparation for a time of joyous celebration. These two seasons help us prepare our hearts for the two biggest Christian feasts of the year -- Christmas and Easter. A big part of this preparation of our hearts is to do things for others -- to be moved with pity for those in need -- and to do something to meet those needs.
In today's Gospel passage, we see Jesus having pity on the sick and curing them and having pity on the hungry and multiplying the loaves and fishes to feed them until they were satisfied. This passage is particularly appropriate for Advent because Jesus' pity for others was born out of His divine love for them. God the Father had pity on us in our sinfulness and, as John 3:16 says, "gave His only Son" that the world "might be saved" (verse 17).
Stop and think about the enormity of that for a moment.
We screwed up in the Garden of Eden. We screwed up big time. God cannot abide sinfulness. He could have wiped the lot of us out and decided to start over or just to forget about creating a creature in His image and likeness. He could have doomed us to hell forever for our disobedience.
But He loved us. He had pity on us because of His great love for us.
He sent Jesus to us to make atonement for our screw up. He willed that Jesus would be the Great Sacrifice which would pay for everything we've ever done or ever will do. God was moved with pity for us because of the depth of His love for us. He was so moved with pity that He not only sent Jesus, but He used one of us to bring Jesus into the world. So deep was His pity for us that He made Mary a participant in bringing forth His mercy into the world, so that we might better understand the sacred nature of what it means to be a mother. He also used Joseph love and care for Jesus as Jesus' adoptive father to help us better understand our own worth as His adopted sons and daughters. He sent Jesus as a baby so that He would grow up and experience life as we do so that we might better relate to Jesus and through a relationship with Him, be reconciled to the Father. All of these things were because God loved us. And that's where pity comes from -- a place of love. We may not always realize it, but at its heart, when we feel pity for someone else, it is because we feel a genuine love for them as a fellow human being.
During this season of preparing our hearts, it behooves us to not ignore these feelings of pity for those in need. Like Jesus, we ought to do something to meet those needs -- even if all we can do is offer up prayers for a person or their situation.
Is there a particular thing that touches your heart and moves you with pity for someone else?
What are you doing to meet the needs of others this Advent?
John 3:16 was our Confirmation theme verse tonight. I didn't know that Lent and Advent/Christmas are both purple in the Catholic Church. Lent is purple in the Lutheran church too but Advent is blue.
ReplyDeleteAdvent and Lent are both purple, but Christmas is either white or gold (or some combination of both). I've heard of some Catholic parishes (usually the ones that are a little less orthodox in their adherence to liturgical norms) who use blue during Advent and Lent, but the stated norm is purple because Advent is seen as a penitential season. In fact, Advent is sometimes referred to as a "little Lent" due to the focus on penitence and almsgiving/charitable works which are two things that it shares with Lent. Blue is usually reserved for Marian feasts and solemnities because the colour blue is associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. I love the different colours we use to signal the various seasons of the liturgical year. There might be a blog post in this :)
DeleteThe least I can do is keep spare change handy (or even bills) and make sure I donate to the Salvation Army folks when I leave a store! I have always found that I'm happiest at Christmas when I am doing things for others and not anticipating what I will receive--and that's what's important--giving.
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