“As we grow up in Christ we will grow in empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling; what they want, what they believe, what they fear. Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart-hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. There is no godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors’ well-being.
“As we grow in Christ we will grow in empathy my favorite story from Jesus is a story of a family rupture and the road to repair one son takes his inheritance and heads to the big city. Another son stays dutifully on the farm. You can feel the heat of his resentment. The father’s gaze is focused on his front gate longing for his son’s return. Just imagine his whispered prayers. There are dozens of words that come to mind.
“When you hear this story today I hear empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling, what they want what they believe and what they fear and even why they make the mistakes they make.
“Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. The initation to empathy is central to our life with God. Remember the great commandment is to love God with all your heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. There is no God Godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors well-being.
“Empathy brought the Run Away Home – he comes to himself. The Bible says empathy is deepened and perfected in reflection. Now he’s clear his actions have injured his family. He rehearses his apology all the way home. It is empathy that prompts the father to run to his returning son. If empathy is understanding, compassion are its legs. Empathy is not the sole property of the intellect. To grow up in Christ is to put Flesh on Christian ideals empathy and compassion are always bundled then. There’s the other son the one who stayed and see the one struggling during this homecoming celebration. The story closes with him forehead to forehead with his father. The father hears that he could have been better and more balanced day to day at empathy rather than reserving it for dramatic occasions. Te sun hears an invitation to think about this family rupture in terms of Lost and Found because only empathy can launch the healing he needs.
“It’s easy to pick sides when you hear this story but I wonder if stretching your empathy wide enough for all the members of this family simultaneously is actually Jesus’s main point.