Are We Losing Our Capacity For Compassion?

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? I John 3:16-17 NLB

Parable of the Good Samaritan by Samuel Nixon, St. Paul's Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Wikipedia) 

Like many of you, I get appeal letters almost every day about the plight of hungry, homeless and desperately ill neighbors around the world. Of the first fifteen social media posts I noted recently, five of them were similarly urgent requests for help.

But like the priest and Levite in Jesus's Good Samaritan parable, I typically find myself scrolling past one stark image and heartfelt appeal after another, like these three recent Facebook examples: 

"Every two minutes a child dies from water related diseases." (CARE)

"There are staggering needs around the world." (Doctors Without Borders)

"Join a community of people who believe in sustainable solutions to hunger." (Heifer International)

In short, I'm afraid I'm becoming numb to the sheer numbers of appeals and the unimaginable numbers of desperate men, women and children who inhabit my shrinking world neighborhood.

Examples:

• Over 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023, countless numbers of others are maimed for life and around 1.9 million (90% of Gaza's population) are displaced, often after losing family members and most of their belongings. 

• Over the last two weeks, Iran has been struck by massive bombs at least 168 times, resulting in 1,200 to 1,500 civilian deaths and multiple injuries. More than 3 million people are internally displaced, mostly from heavily targeted areas of Tehran.

• Over 700 million people worldwide are facing chronic hunger, about 1 in 11 people. Over 40 million are on the brink of starvation, and 43 million children under 5 have suffered life-threatening weight loss.

Am I losing my capacity for compassion? These are, after all, my fellow human beings, beloved neighbors whom I am to love and care for just as I love and care for myself and for my own.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

— Martin Luther King Jr., "A Time to Break the Silence", quoted in Hicks & Valeri 2008