Compassion: a sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try and alleviate and prevent it.
Matter: anything that has mass and takes up space.
Compassion matterized.
Yes, that’s a word I just made up, but think about it!
The universe begins in the imagination of God. God dreams forth what could be and speaks it into existence.
God says “light” and with a big bang, light becomes ionized matter. God says earth, and molecules form together to create stars and planets. God says life, and oceans teem with creatures, plants spring from the ground, insects, animals, birds, and reptiles fill the world.
God is good, and what God creates is good. The divine community speaks to each other at each phase of the creative process and says, “This is good!” The Hebrew word טוֹב (ṭôwb) “good” is loaded with meaning. Tov can mean beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, and fair. Depending on the context of use it can also denote graciously, joyfully, kindly, kindness, loving, merry, and most pleasant.
Goodness is baked into every aspect of creation. It infuses every molecule of the universe. It is the substance from which all things are made. Think of God baking up a cake that is the universe, the key ingredient is goodness.
When God gets to humanity, we get the first “very good!”
The Trinity gets down in the stardust and mud of the newly water creation and plays around, slapping together mudpie humans. It is then and only then that we get the first “Very good!” Human beings, made in the image of God, and given dominion over all creation, are called supremely good.
As image bearers, we are like a re-presentation of the divine Triune community. We reflect the goodness of God and we are given a responsibility over creation: to till and keep, to be fruitful and multiply, to cultivate and care for the creation God has made.
The first word over humanity is not “totally depraved” or broken beyond repair. It proclaims the goodness we already are. Fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. This is the original goodness.
Creation is an act of compassion. In God’s supreme goodness, God wants to share Godself with us. This is an act of ultimate love. God, a living being of indescribable goodness, is not satisfied to contain goodness in Godself. God shares goodness in the process of creation. God is motivated by love to share Godself, weaving together the particles of our universe in an intricate tapestry of relationships.
God creates in community… “Let us make…” (Genesis 1:26). Godself is a community which Christians have historically called Trinity. A God who is One, and three distinct persons. Creation is a socially constructed environment.
God created the cosmos, a web of good molecules, as an environment for good relationships. Physicists describe the universe as a series of relationships, matter, space, time, inextricably woven together in a cosmic tapestry. God lives in loving relationship with all things and with creation itself. Every molecule is the overflow of God’s goodness.
When we think of compassion, we may assume it starts with suffering. It’s the ability to empathize with another and “suffer with” (from Latin compati meaning “to feel pity” and com meaning “with, together”). But our understanding of compassion comes from a fallen perspective. Compassion is not about pity at all.
We were not created to suffer. We were created to love.
The original intent of compassion is not about suffering but rather delight. To delight in our other. To delight in God. To delight in God delighting in us. God delights in the goodness of creation. God delights in us delighting in each other. God gives us the innate ability to delight. This is the foundation of love. This is the true maker’s mark in us, and it is compassion that is a pronounced feature of the human species (more on this later).
A spirituality of compassion is one grounded in solidarity. It is an awakening of our original unity, in the words of Thomas Merton, the “Oneness we already are.”
As relational beings, created in the image of a relational God. Compassion touches on something universal to our relational nature. The ability to empathize, to think, feel, partner, relate with another being, is at the heart of every relationship. It’s the ability to know, to love, to care. Compassion is not merely about helping others who are experiencing misfortune, it’s the capacity for union.
God calls us “very good” the crowning gem of creation and invites us to walk with God in the cool of the day. Consider the psalmist’s ode to the majesty of human beings in Psalm 8.
The psalmist is delighting in the innate goodness of creation. The heavens reveal the glory of God. Every molecule of the universe is imbued with the divine energy of love.
The universe is the context of love. Creation itself is compassion matterized. The uncountable stars in the sky are God’s artwork. In the vast grandeur of all this, God places a peculiar little being in the center of it all.
“Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2).
It is in the beauty of a cooing infant that the vilest evil seems small and momentary. The cry of a newborn drowns out the clamor of war. There is victory in the singular miracle of a human life. Social neuroscience teaches us that our brains and bodies are wired for compassion. The first experience of this is through the miracle of birth and child rearing. Evolutionarily speaking, it seems like a design flaw that a newborn cannot survive a single day without the care and protection of a compassionate community. Yet what seems like a weakness is our greatest strength. Compassion can silence the hatred and war in the world.
The psalmist reflects, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” We seem so tiny and insignificant in the immense majesty of it all.
And yet he says, “You have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” God has made humanity, the image bearers, the definitive masterpiece of creation. We have been given a vocation to be a steward of God’s good world. We are to be compassionate towards all living things and the matter of creation itself. We are God’s re-presentations, mirroring God’s own loving care of this garden planet.
This is a high theology of humanity. Every person is of sacred worth and great value. Even those we perceive as difficult or downright mean. Original goodness—the good we always were.
Here also is a call to take time to be present with the planet. To spend time in nature. To commune with animal and plant life. To look for the sacred moments infused in a sunrise or sunset. To sit with an opening flower. To stare at the wild owl who lives in my backyard, as she stares back at me, listening to each other listening. This is about seeing the divine energy of love that permeates all things. Delighting in the innate goodness that is baked into every molecule of creation. It also includes taking responsibility for living in less ecologically harmful ways.
Of course, compassion becomes even more essential in the light of our original trauma, the fragmentation and fallout of sin. Yet immediately the God who is “filled with compassion” (Psalm 145:8) comes after us with the graceful call “where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). God has been calling out “where are you” ever since, seeking to put back the pieces through liberation, covenant, and prophets.
Then in the fullness of time… “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1: 14 Message).
Compassion Mattered.
The church is to be the body of Christ, the flesh and blood matterization of the compassion of Jesus.
Thanks for being a part of my Substack community. In addition to these interdisciplinary reflections, I’ve launched a new podcast called Compassion Matters to add value to your experience. Learn more and check out the first episode right here!
Michael, this message and your words and your wisdom are amazing. Thanks for sharing - Richard Speirs
This is a major paradigm shift. The podcast is helpful to be able to hear the ideas fleshed out. This is great, thanks.