In your love you have sent your Son,
Your salvation for everyone;
Word Incarnate, God’s compassion;
Hope for humankind, hope for humankind.*
“You don’t know what it’s like.” I don’t. I don’t know what it’s like to have cancer, to divorce, to have a failing heart, to be homeless, to lose a spouse or a child, to be taken for granted, to live in fear, fail in school, lose a job. I have listened to these stories, tried to be present, and tried to say the right things. But I don’t know what it is like. Much as I might love someone, I can’t enter into the situation. I can’t be in the pain. I can’t be her.
Jesus can. Jesus is. In the song, he is called “Salvation.” “Word.” “Hope.” Jesus is also called “God’s Compassion.” I can almost imagine God wondering what it is like to be human, and loving us enough to find out. In his compassion for us, God becomes one with us, becomes us. He is hungry, and thirsty, and tired. He knows failure and betrayal. He weeps over death. Sinless, he experiences sin in his hands, and feet, and heart.
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way.**
Jesus, God’s compassion, knows what it’s like.
*from Maranatha, Gerard Chiusano
**Hebrews 4:15
— Blog entry by Sister Paula Gero; photo by Mary Knapke
