Webster’s Dictionary defines passion as intense, overwhelming emotion. And compassion means being intensely conscious of another’s difficult emotional state, or to be in “distress together.” This understanding speaks of the life and death of Jesus. It can also be applied to God, our Father, who sent Jesus to redeem us from every agony and from the ultimate distress of death.
But how can you apply this understanding of the passion and compassion of Jesus to daily life? First, stand in the place of any blind, deaf, lame or leprous person in the Bible. Second, contemplate God’s passionate, intense and healing love for you in that place. Third, look to Jesus on the Cross. He took on the ultimate distress of dying on your behalf. Fourth, he conquered death, so surrender your fears, worries and emotions. Then thank him.
During Therese’s youth she often prayed with a crucifix on the inside cover of her prayer book. The prayer underneath was, “Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus while before Your face I humbly kneel.” His sacrificial, passionate love became very real for her and has continued to this day. When she is in a place that elicits a deep fear of height, for example, she pictures Jesus as he was tempted to throw himself off a cliff in the desert. Then she reaches for his hand.
For John, the struggle with one discouraging illness after another has led him deeper into the lives of the saints, especially St. Alphonse Liguori, who was in constant pain from arthritis. This saint wrote, “There is nothing more pleasing to God, than to see a soul who patiently and serenely bears whatever crosses it is sent; this is how love is made, by putting lover (Christ) and loved one (you or I) on the same level” as companions.