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Views from the Choir Loft

True Compassion

Fr. David Friel · June 9, 2013

ERHAPS YOU WORK in a parish office; perhaps you work in a classroom; perhaps you work in both. Most musicians work odd hours, but imagine for a moment that you have a 9-to-5 job. Now imagine that it’s 4:30 on Friday afternoon. It’s been a long week, and you’ve gotten a lot of things done. At this point, no one is starting any new projects. Then the phone rings. This could be anything, so you (along with all your coworkers) are hesitant to answer, for fear that the person on the other end might want something more complicated than you’re interested in getting involved with at this point in the week. The temptation is there to ignore the phone and just breeze into the weekend.

Take another example. I like to hike & camp & backpack, so imagine you are on a long backpacking trip. You have just finished a 15-mile day, and you’re approaching your campsite for the night. The first thing you want to do is take your boots off, sit down, and relax a bit. But you know that someone needs to set up the stove immediately and get some water boiling for dinner. The temptation is there to slip into the background and let somebody else deal with it so you can go on relaxing.

We have all been in similar situations, and so has Jesus. One day, Jesus came to the end of a long day’s hike to a city called Nain. As He and the large crowd with Him approached the city gate, they found a big funeral procession leaving the city. Yes, Jesus is fully divine, but He is also fully human, so I am very certain that, after a long day’s journey, the last thing He wanted to get involved with was a funeral procession and a grieving family. Yet our Lord does not allow that merely human inclination to get the better of Him. Instead, He rises above that. According to the Gospel, “He stepped forward.” He could have snuck back into the crowd or hid behind a rock or entered the city through a different gate. But He didn’t. Why?

Because, according to St. Luke, “He was moved with pity” for the woman who was not only the boy’s mother, but also a widow. In other words, Jesus allowed Himself to feel compassion for the poor widow of Nain. To be compassionate means, literally, to be able to “suffer with” the poor and downtrodden. It seems like the world wants to tell us that real men can’t be compassionate, though. Do you get the sense sometimes that, in the eyes of the world, authentic masculinity means remaining detached, unemotive, “strong”? I daresay that a man who cannot feel compassion is not “strong,” but weak & cold. Jesus is the greatest model of manhood there ever was, and He shows by example that compassion is not just for mothers.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that we all have to go around weepy and crying and pretending to be “sensitive,” but we do have to show true compassion. So, men: let’s reclaim what it means to be strong men who can recognize the needs of others and not be cold and unresponsive. Women: demand true manhood from the men in your life.

Jesus could have avoided the encounter with widow of Nain, but He chose instead to step forward and get involved. He could have given in to the human inclination to stay out of it, but He allowed Himself to be “moved with pity” for the poor woman. A real man is a man of compassion, and a man of compassion is a man of service. Can we—men and women—do the same? Can we be moved by compassion to step forward and be of service to those who suffer around us? We must, because the Gospel demands this of us.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Baptism” • A Unique Hymn
    Father Christopher Phillips is the founding Pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. One of his hymns is unique and (in my humble opinion) quite beautiful. His hymn is basically a prayer to the Holy Trinity but also speaks of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It would be an ideal Communion hymn on Trinity Sunday or the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. You can hear live recording from last Sunday by clicking here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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