Divine revelation can come through the book of nature or the book of inner experience.
…from the inspiring words or example of another person, which hold up to us a mirror
in which we catch sight of our own infinite potentiality and are drawn to fulfill it.
(Grace: On the Journey to God, Michael Casey)
I’ve experienced this kind of divine revelation at certain times, but one day in particular changed my life significantly. It led me to live in a much deeper and truer way. In the springtime of 2004 I stood at the patio’s glass doors and looked out onto the woods. A beloved friend had died that morning and grief stunned me. Just then a hummingbird flew and hovered in front of my face, staying there for several minutes. I stood enthralled, remembering my friend’s fondness for these tiny creatures. Then I heard clearly within me: “Love is all that counts.” At that moment, the absolute necessity to live compassionately stirred to life in me. (My friend was the most compassionate person I had known.)
From then on, I held this “divine revelation” in my heart. That profound experience took time to root and grow. Several years later, I felt the nudge to move my ministry in a different direction, one focused on what has become the “Boundless Compassion” program. I gradually recognized this virtue as much more than “an action.” I learned that compassion has to be a way of life, affecting my thoughts, words and deeds, my attitude and approach to others who suffer. Compassion requires that I not only be mindful or aware of suffering, I am to be non-judgmental, non-violent, and forgiving toward all. Only then will I truly live as someone who bears a heart of compassion.
So much has happened in the development of Boundless Compassion, far beyond what I ever envisioned when the hummingbird visited. We now have over 100 trained facilitators carrying on the program, a central leadership in the capable care of two co-directors and a core team of seven. Plus, we now have our own Boundless Compassion website!
Lent has arrived. Globally and personally we find ourselves immersed in either our own or someone else’s suffering. Surely compassion is indispensable as we move through the coming six weeks. Lent is often viewed as a time of personal conversion. While there’s no doubt we could use some improvement in how we go about our lives, I suggest that instead of focusing on what’s wrong with us, that we look to the power of our indwelling love and how that can be of benefit in our suffering world.
St. Aelred of Rievaulx, a 12 th century writer, expresses it this way:
“In a single act of love hold the entire world in your heart. There consider all the good people together and rejoice. There look upon the evil and lament. Gaze upon those in trouble and oppressed and share their suffering.” While we ought not to absorb another’s suffering—this just adds to the sorrow or pain—we can connect to the love within us, send it outward to support and strengthen those who hurt, and then engage in some action to help alleviate that suffering.
Imagine the good that can happen if we are more intentionally compassionate.
Abundant peace,
Joyce Rupp
