BBBrrrrrr! It got cold

I walk every morning after I take my kids to school. This week it has been in the mall rather than through my neighborhood. It got cold! I know what that feeling is for me, but how about the folks in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and the entire Midwest where the devastation has been so great that thousands are relying on fireplaces to stay warm and almost 40 people have died. If we think of it as a hurricane at the freezing level then maybe we are able to empathize better with those hearty folk on the Southern Plains.

Empathy is one of the great gifts of the Holy Spirit, as I see it.

Empathy allows us to get closer to the needs of others because we can more fully understand the pain, bewilderment or isolation of whatever condition of humanity with which our neighbor is confronted. I am reminded of the words of the late Queen Mother to the English people during the German Blitz of London in World War II. Adolph Hitler had given strict orders to the bomber squadrons not to bomb anywhere near the historic heart of London. Hitler feared that to do so might be detrimental to his plan to force the English to capitulate as the Luftaffe did its' work on the docks and piers of the industrial north end of London. As so often happens in war, a mistake was made that very well turned the tide of the Battle of Britain: a single bomber, off course, dropped a single bomb that exploded and left a huge crater inside the walls of the grounds at Buckingham Palace. Neither King George nor the Queen were present, but they did arrive to inspect the damage, walking the grounds for what became one of the best photo opportunities of the century. When she was asked by a reporter how it felt to see the palace bombed, the Queen turned with fire in her eyes and said very boldly and directly, "I feel that now, I, can look the North End in the face". The English people loved her for it then and remember her for it to this day, long after she has left this life for the life beyond.

Many a theologian has said that empathy puts us in the right path to see not only the degree of pain of the other man or woman, but to see that our pain and suffering pales next to that which our neighbor is experiencing. Yes, it is cold in LA (Lower Alabama) this week, but it is frigid out in the center of the U.S. of A. today. If you can have empathy then see a little place similar to Jackson...say someplace like Oakhill, Kan.; or Elk City, Okla.; or Hermitage, Mo. - places you may never have heard of before - in the dire straits today. It is silent, except for the sound of chain saws as the power company crews work overtime to try and alleviate the miserable condition of our fellow humans. My suffering today?? Gee, I have to be inconvenienced with a drive to Springdale Mall so that I can keep my weight down. Tough, ain't it?

"When we begin to feel the pain of others", says the theologian, "then we begin to feel the pain of God". The Holy One knows our state. The One who made all and is all, is all about empathy. Jesus comes to us in the flesh not for the sake of God, but for the sake of man. It is that we might believe and live in faith that our God knows us completely.

Pain and joy are fully assumed in ultimate love. Our struggle is God's struggle and God will not abandon the feeling of pain, joy or empathy.

I often wonder when I write these little columns if anyone thinks I am some pie in the sky kid who has never had to struggle. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you, the biggest struggle that I have is living with me. I have lived through the worst of the human condition in the actions and thoughts of me. I have yet to forgive some of the persons involved in my traumas. I'm real good at pointing fingers at others and not accepting that my action or lack thereof has had a bearing on the ills that have beset me. I have yet to own that a stubborn nature, no matter how "right" is not one of the seven virtues. There is a great deal about living that I have yet to learn and usually, when I reflect honestly, I have run amiss because I did not consider the feelings of 'the other guy.

"I feel that now, I, can look the North End in the face" is a watchword for me. It reminds me that queen or pauper, each of us carries the role of Christ giver to the world. As our Lord instructs us in the Scripture to "love one another" (Gospel according to John) may I be blessed to see that I am given the gift of empathy to make that work a bit easier to see.

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