SERMON: Today the modern man is continuously adapting an attitude of ‘mind your own business’ in most of his or her interactions with fellow men. Many people have become the “oh I’m so busy!” exclaimers, hence creating a wrong impression that one cannot be both busy and caring. This inhuman attitude misses the essential point of Christian humanism which emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the central importance of human values as opposed to any other thing. Man should continue to be appreciated as compassionate, hence showing the spirit of caring as the keeper of his or her brother and sister. A caring person is a treasure hard to forget. When we look back into our personal history, we find nice memories of those people that have marked our life as caring; they might be parents, relatives, teachers or friends, etc.. Whether dead or alive, these people still mean a lot to us. They stand out in our memory in such a way that we can not forget them because they cared about us. Although it might be difficult at times, we all ought to be caring people. Care is the ingredient that keeps true friendship alive, because it sustains love. The caring people are in most cases happy people. It is a self realization process, because that attitude of caring provides the key to unlocking people’s potential and making them real. True care is from one’s heart. You just can’t pretend to be a caring person when you do not mean it. People will feel that you are not real but a pretender. In fact, the more we aim at becoming truly caring people, the more we grow within us, and the more we understand our selves and others. A caring person is not the one who is not busy! Far from it; we can be both busy and caring. Jesus serves as the best example since he portrays the figure of both a busy man and a very caring person. In fact the common image of Jesus in the scriptures is that of a caring, empathetic and compassionate man who calls off his well-deserved rest to attend to this or that person in need. We find him considerate, receptive and disposed to change his plan according to the needs of the moment. It has hard to pick the day in his life which does not show him busy yet caring. We may take the example in the gospel by Mark. “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). Although Jesus had crossed the lake for a much needed retreat with his disciples, where the people had no right to invade his privacy, when he looked into the people’s weary faces, when he saw their need, he changed his program, and responded to their need. Of course he was entitled to his rest; and people should have understood. Perhaps in our case, in such a situation we would have been quick to put a note on our doors reading ‘closed’ or ‘out of bounds’ etc… Jesus was not interested in asserting his rights because he knew that people were bugging him out of despair. That is why with all day’s fatigue he always set himself to diagnose and treat the cause of such despair in people. The bible presents us many episodes where Jesus is marked with compassion, like when his cousin and friend, John the Baptist had just been beheaded, when he tried to go to a lonely place to mourn, the crowds beat him there! He left it at that and started healing the sick and serving them with dinner. Only then, in the evening, did he get a chance to be alone for a while, because he was soon interrupted again. (Mt. 14:10-25) Even when his life was on the line, Jesus had time for other people’s problems. This way, Jesus sets a great example for us in similar situation of lack of time. He is telling us that the time for people is always there. How would you and I respond in a similar situation? We would probably berate the crowd and accuse them of insensitivity. We would send some people to drive them away and if necessary bring in the law enforcement agencies. Perhaps we might be right because of this or that background. But the principle remains valid: for a caring person, compassion requires him or her to put himself or herself in the other person’s position and trying to see things the way the other person sees them. There is a proverb that says, “Do not criticize your neighbor until you have walked a mile in their shoes.” That exercise enables us to be sensitive and responsive to their needs and it can help us to lead lives of compassion and care even when this may require us to change some of our plans like Jesus did. Ends .
