There is no compassion without many tears

In preparing a short essay for class based on the final section of the Nouwen book quoted below I came across this:

It might sound strange to consider grief a way to compassion. But it is. Grief asks me to allow the sins of the world-my own included-to pierce my heart and make me shed tears, many tears, for them. There is no compassion without many tears. If they can’t be tears that stream from my eyes, they have to be at least tears that well up from my heart… There are so few mourners left in this world. But grief is the discipline of the heart that sees the sin of the world, and knows itself to be the sorrowful price of freedom without which love cannot bloom. I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving. This grief is so deep not just because the human sin is so great, but also-and more so-because the divine love is so boundless.

Excerpt from “The Return of the Prodigal son” by Henri Nouwen pages 128-9

I will write more at some point in the future, though realistically not until December when my courses have concluded for the quarter. In the meantime I would challenge you to consider what this might mean for you…