Rhetoric Race and Religion
What did the pope see when he embraced a disfigured man in St. Peter’s Square? If you read news reports about the scene, the answer is clear: the pope saw someone who was suffering; someone in need of compassion.And certainly that is what many of us saw as well. We witnessed an elevated religious leader touch someone whom many would find untouchable.
Many of us also briefly imagined how much we ourselves would yearn to be embraced if we were covered in boils and knotted in pain. Compassion is indeed a Christian response, and it is different from pity. Compassion realizes the kinship that all human beings share. Compassion also acknowledges what can often seem to be the terrible caprice of life. Some people are born beautiful in ways that all can recognize; others are born and they look different—and for that very reason they are looked on differently as “other.”
When we feel compassion for someone, we understand that there but for the unfathomable grace of God goes anyone and everyone.
Read the rest here
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In