Pints With Aquinas - What Christ's Compassion REALLY Looks Like! | Mthr. Natalia

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Mother talks about modernity's common misconceptions about Compassion. Then, she walks us through what we can learn about real compassion from observing the Crucifixion. 🟣 Join Us on Locals (before we get banned on YT): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ 🎧 Mother's Podcast: https://whatgodisnot.com/ 🖥️ Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ 🟢 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas 👕 Merch: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com 🚫 FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/fradd 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd We get a small kick back from affiliate links

Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas. Last week I shared with you a homily from a priest friend of mine who said in a very hyperbolic way, God is not merciful and God is not compassionate. He then followed this up with God is mercy and God is compassion. So the point he was trying to make is that these aren't just characteristics of God. It's not like God is merciful right now, but the next moment he might not be merciful. God can't not be merciful. He can't not be compassionate.

And thus he is mercy. He is compassion. You know, we could say, Mother Natalia is charitable. And I think that's usually true. But I wouldn't say Mother Natalia is charity because when I've woken up in the morning and I have not yet had my coffee,

I'm much slower to charity. And yeah, so there are these characteristics, these ways in which we grow back into our likeness of God. But God, He is charity. He is mercy. He is compassion. So last week I spoke about what mercy is, and this week I want to share about compassion. Because I think this is one of the most misunderstood words in our society today.

Because what we think compassion is in our society is letting people do whatever they want. Just saying to someone, if this is what makes you feel good, if this is what makes you happy, then because I have compassion, I'm going to approve of that thing and support that thing. Even if deep down, I think it's harmful to you. But what compassion actually is, the Latin word for compassion, the root is compasio, which I'm sure is not how you pronounce it because I don't know how to pronounce Latin,

but it means to suffer with. This is literally what compassion is, to suffer with. St. Maximus the confessor talks about grace and nature, and he talks about these natural faculties that we have, these what he calls organs, that make us, they give us the capacity for grace. So he talks about natural compassion, and he, not even the grace of the Holy Spirit can actualize the gifts if we don't have the natural capacity. And then on the other hand,

a man can't acquire a single one of the gifts with only his natural faculties, unless he's aided by divine power. So God works with our nature. St. Maximus also says, he who has acquired natural compassion receives after the utter annihilation of self-love the gifts of healing.

He who has acquired natural compassion receives after the utter annihilation of self-love, the gifts of healing. So I think typically what happens for us is we have kind of a fleeting compassion. We encounter someone else's suffering, and then we have this moment in which we feel their suffering. We suffer with them.

And then, because we're feeling their suffering, we just want to do whatever it takes to take the suffering away. We want to appease whatever it is to take the suffering away. We don't actually want to be compassionate. We don't actually want to suffer with them because nobody wants to suffer. So the easier thing is to push down the suffering instead of addressing whatever is bringing it about. I came to kind of a painful realization of this

a few years ago when I think of myself as a pretty compassionate person and someone who suffers with people. And sometimes I am. Sometimes I have that compassion. But I realized that other times it really is this false compassion, this misguided compassion, where I don't actually want to sit with someone in their suffering, I just want to ease my own. And the way I realized this is one of the nuns, one of the other nuns was just having a really bad day. And because she was having a bad day, the rest of us were kind of having a bad day. The rest of us were kind of having a bad day. And I didn't want to have to put

up with her anxiety. I didn't want to have to put up with her suffering. So I started doing little things to cheer her up. And surface level, that seems like a good thing. And objectively, it is a good thing. But in analyzing my motives afterwards, I realized I wasn't trying to cheer her up because I was trying to help her to feel better. I was trying to cheer her up because I was trying to help her to feel better. I was trying to cheer her up because I wanted her to feel better so that I could feel better because she was making my life harder.

And that doesn't mean, I don't mean that just because we don't have the best motives means that we shouldn't still do the right thing or the good thing. I just think it means that we need to grow in our self-awareness and ask the Lord to purify those motives. Ask Him what it looks like to really have compassion in a certain situation. Because Jesus doesn't just take away the pain. Jesus, who is compassion, suffers with us. And He does this most obviously on the cross, right? And it's not easy

to have this true compassion, because it's not easy to have this true compassion, because it's not easy to suffer, and because we are misunderstood when we have this true compassion. Because in today's world, if we are unwilling to compromise truth and beauty and goodness, we're told that we don't have compassion. If we're willing to actually sit in someone's suffering with them,

instead of making compromises to take it away, we're told we don't have compassion. But something really beautiful here is that even in that being misunderstood, the Lord has compassion on us. He suffers with us. Because when the people that we love don't understand that we're suffering with them, Jesus knows our hearts and He takes your face in his hands and he says, I know, I know and I'm suffering with you.

Because even in our compassion, in our suffering with, Jesus suffers with us too, because He is compassion. It's also really hard to receive compassion, to let people suffer with us when we're suffering. But Jesus did this too. A friend pointed out to me recently that actually this is what Jesus does on the cross. Because on the cross, Jesus doesn't only experience pain and take on the pain himself, he inflicts pain.

He inflicts pain on Mary and on John. He invites them to compassion. Can you imagine, can you imagine what it was like for Jesus, suffering on the cross to look down and see his mother and to know that he had the power to just end her suffering like that. And to say instead, I'm going to allow you to suffer with me. Because compassion, as St. Maximus the confessor said, compassion in the absence of self-love brings healing. Jesus in his passion suffers with us in totally selfless love for healing and for salvation. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. this day, thank you for the gift that you've given us in being able to suffer, for giving

us the capacity to suffer, to suffer with those that we love in order to be drawn deeper into your own suffering, the suffering of your son on the cross, and the suffering of his mother. Thank you for giving us this gift of natural compassion that you may with your spirit give us the gifts of healing that come from it. I ask you to annihilate any self-love that is within us that we may through our compassion bring about true healing. The healing that doesn't just take away

the result of suffering, but that really heals the disease. The suffering that roots out sin and death, the suffering that leads to resurrection. I ask that you give us all the courage to live this well, the courage to act in spite of fear. I ask all of this through the prayers of Saint Nathaniel, Saint John Paul II, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints, through the prayers of our Holy Fathers,

O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.