COMPASSION

COMPASSION IN FR. MASSIGNON'S WRITINGS

Compassion was so key to Fr. Louis  Massignon's understanding of the Badaliyya and substitution as a call to intercessory prayer, action and inter-religious relationship. 

In his twenties, in 1908, Fr. Massignon had a profound experience of what he later described as "God breaking into his life" and as his "conversion experience". From this beginning he recognized the compassionate caring and prayer for him by others, including Blessed Charles de Foucauld and the Muslim Alussy family in Baghdad. Deeply affected by his correspondence with Foucauld, his understanding of compassion became a center piece of his spirituality and a vital component of his experience of authentic relationship with God and others. As we explore the meaning of compassion in our lives, and pray with and for those suffering in our world, hear the words of Fr. Louis Massignon:

"As long as God leaves us absorbed in our own suffering we remain sterile, nailed to ourselves. As soon as compassion brings us beyond, to another's suffering other than our own, we enter into the realm of compassion experientially, we discover wisdom in it; in the immortal company of all creatures purified by angelic and human trial we glimpse the joy of tomorrow through the pain of today".
(Bapa Jun)