The
Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No
longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see
your Teacher, While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: “This is the
way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right or to the left. Isaiah 30-20-21
At
the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they
were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his
disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master
of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Matthew
9:36-38
Piety
Jesus, help us to take our “pity” for others
from our hearts to our hands so that we can continue to carry out your
kingdom-building mission.
Study
“Pity” is an interesting word choice to
describe Jesus’ heart as he looked out on the crowd which was walking all over
Galilee with him. The word sent me into
the word origins/etymology resources on the Internet Machine.
Pity is the state of feeling “mercy, compassion, care,
or tenderness for people who are worse off that you. Closely related to pity is our third leg of the
Cursillo tripod – “piety” which means the state of feeling a send of loyalty or
duty." Its word origin also refers back to a sense of faith, compassion,
mercy and tenderness to God or sometimes to a sense of duty, loyalty, or
patriotism to natural ties. It
also can infer honor and respect. Connecting it all is the sense of misericordia
– a merciful heart.
My exploration of
this root word also turned up another interesting historical fact. Prayers in the early medieval church
were recited standing with uplifted hands. The old or infirm could use crutches
or, as time went on, a small bench called a “misericordia (literally
"act of mercy"). For these times of required standing, seating was
constructed so that the seats could be turned up. However, the undersides
sometimes had a small shelf, a misericord, allowing the user to lean against
it, slightly reducing their discomfort.
In the end, “pity”
seems to be something that the strong offer to the weak. Maybe that means that “piety” is something
that the weak offer to the strong?
Action
Jesus has pity on us. Likewise, we have pity
on others. In both cases, if we have a merciful
heart, we will be spurred to action. Pity without action is meaningless, sappy
emotion – the kind I experience when those late night commercials beg me to
give to a charity about which I know very little. And I go back to sleep.
Jesus uses the occasion to send his disciples
out to act. Jesus is the “master of the
harvest,” sending laborers out to carry on his work now so they will be prepared
to do so after he is gone. Initially, Jesus sends them to the lost sheep of Israel…but
then the mission expands to Samaria and the land of the Gentiles.
Where is your walk taking you this
Advent? No need for planes, trains or
automobiles. Jesus and Isaiah send us
out to carry on their work to those who are close to us in distance.
The homeless man living under the blue tarp
at the Braddock Road exit from the Fairfax County Parkway comes to mind. The woman sitting at the corner of Wisconsin
Avenue and M Street, NW every morning while rushing commuters speed past
without compassion, without “misericordia,” without piety or pity.
As we enter the Year of Mercy, we enter a
time to examine our heart and our hands.
What will you DO ABOUT the pity you feel? Now is not the time to go back to sleep.
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