DAY 107
Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland
Week Sixteen – Monday 29 June 2020
Empathy and Sympathy
“Currently our lives have been upended by a truly historic global pandemic. I am profoundly aware that graduating during this time is extremely difficult. However, please hang in there. We need you to be smart, strong, and resilient. With discipline and empathy, we will all get through this together.” - Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in a recent Zoom address to the graduating classes of all Jesuit secondary schools around the country, he himself a graduate of one of them.
Empathy and sympathy are two words communicating desperately needed modeling for us by the leadership of our country at this time of tragic and continuing loss through the coronavirus pandemic. Both convey an innate personality characteristic which cannot be fabricated.
What do they mean? Both words come from the Greek and have as their root ‘pathos,’ feeling or passion as in suffering. The prefixes indicate the subtle difference: ‘sym’ meaning ‘with’ and ‘em’ meaning ‘in.’ Thus sympathy is the characteristic of being able to feel with others what they are experiencing and empathy is the characteristic of being able to actually feel being ‘in’ the suffering of the other.
Empathy is expressed in three ways: the intellectual, being able to mentally understand the other person’s situation; the emotional, being able to feel what the other person is experiencing, and the compassionate, responding to the other person’s situation in some intentional way. The good Samaritan in the Bible was empathetic, exhibiting all three qualities.
The prophet Isaiah prophetically pictured the coming Messiah as the epitome of sympathy and empathy: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, … he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5.
Reflective question: Who needs your empathy today: will you let the Lord show you?
Reflective Scripture: Romans 12:15 – “… weep with those who weep …”
Reflective hymn:
“Compassion Hymn” – Kristyn Getty ©2009
And with compassion for the hurting you reached out your hand
As the lame ran to meet you and the dead breathed again;
You saw behind the eyes of sorrow and shared in our tears
Heard the sigh of the weary, let the children draw near.
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