Risk delight

Ecclesiastes 1:18b The more you know, the more you hurt.

I'm not sure what "The Preacher", which is how the Greek work Ecclesiastes is usually translated, or "The Quester" as Peterson, writer of The Message Bible calls him, means by this statement, but it immediately made me think of global communication. We now know not only about the terrible things that are happening in our own neighborhoods (I get an e-mail "Crime Watch" from my homeowner's association which lists every crime in the area -- this may be more information than I want!) or cities and towns -- witness the police log in every local newspaper -- but worldwide. We hear about explosions in India, tsunamis in Indonesia, bus accidents that kill children in Canada, all that is going on all over the world: wars, famine, murder, natural disasters, illnesses of all kinds, relocation of refugees fleeing oppression, as well as the horrors of repressive regimes. For one who's call is to be compassionate, it is a tsunami of pain that can be almost literally overwhelming. It's easy to shut down or cut it off.

I believe, though, that the spiritual path asks something else of us: the courage and the stamina to look such suffering square in the face and accept it. Not accept as in become resigned, but accept as in recognize and acknowledge the fact of it. Compassion means to stand with others in their pain. And that is meant to move us to act on their behalf in whatever way we can. Spirit in our lives is not about protection or immunity from pain and difficulty; its purpose is to enable us to step more deeply into life and all its difficulty as a means of transformation.

And I can't resist another poem, which captures so well the paradox between having compassion for all the pain in the world and living in the joy of the Christian path.

A Brief for the Defense
by Jack Gilbert

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
Are not starving someplace, they are starving
Somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
Be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
Be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
At the fountain are laughing together between
The suffering they have known and the awfulness
In their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
In the village is very sick. There is laughter
Every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta.
And the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
We lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
But not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
The stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
Furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
Measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
We should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at theprow again of a small ship
Anchored late at night in the tiny port
Looking over to teh sleeping island: the waterfront
Is three shuttered cafes and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
Comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
All the years of sorrow that are to come.

Prayer: Dear God, You have given me a life of joy and a heart of compassion. Help me to walk this tightrope of Your Love, balancing the inexpressible Joy at the heart of Your Walk, with the depth of compassion for all Your Suffering World. Amen.