On Authority and Compassion

"Can't you spare a poor widow a pence for a piece of bread?"

A young rich businessman is there staring at her. He doesn't say a word. He proceeds to toss a quarter her way and walk away. He doesn't look at her, just tosses a quarter and walks away. The widow is happy yet feels unsatisfied at the same time. She can get her daily bread, yet she wanted the businessman to see her face, to see her suffering. She can't explain why she has this feeling. Happy, yet sad, able to eat, yet wanting relationship, wanting someone to see her as a real person.

We are all like the poor widow and the rich businessman. We all have suffering that we wish we could share with other people, and we are all like the rich businessman who wants to act with compassion, but not step outside his comfort zone to do so. It is understandable that it is hard to see suffering in front of us and be overwhelmed with what to do. To actually see a person suffering immensely, causes us discomfort. Some people rationalize the suffering of the widow. She made bad choices, she's addicted to alcohol, she didn't use her money responsibly. Others have a response like the businessman, give some money but don't think about her plight in any way. Look away, keep going, don't do anything uncomfortable. Finally, some people act with compassion and engage the widow in a conversation and treat her like a person, not someone to be afraid of. Some may ask, why isn't the response of giving money enough, why do I have to actually pay attention to the widow as well. To not pay attention to the widow is to allow suffering to perpetuate without looking at the structural problems which cause suffering (O'Connell, Compassion: Loving Our Neighbor in an Age of Globalization).

When we look at structures that perpetuate suffering, we have to examines structures themselves, how people run structures, and our role in a structure. Structures are a facet of any community. Every community builds a structure in order to govern its life. Therefore, structures have bottom lines because every community has a reason for its existence. A bottom line can be something as simple as x community will make y good to sell for profit, or x community will have z religious tenets and uphold them. These bottom lines provide purpose for the community. Structures enforce this purpose and help provide unity in the community.

All people want unity with others. This unity is a desirable cause which every person should want. If people don't want unity with others, then I would check if something else is going on with the person. However, we can value unity with our community over and against love of neighbor and allowing others to find unity with others. Every community also has people, who may or may not agree with the bottom line. Every person also has situations which may help or hinder their ability to see the bottom line as the elite presents it. A strong community is able to have people who have diverse opinions, diverse situations, and different needs, and yet still have the different needs met. A weak community, in times of trial, falls toward the center and its bottom line, and loses track of the people in the community.

So, what are the symptoms of a weak community? Isolationism, defensive tendencies, and an excluding of other people are symptoms of a weak community. Sadly, these are only the symptoms, they are often not the root cause of the weakening of community. The root cause is often hidden in the institution or embedded in the greater structures that govern many institutions. The root cause can be anything that plagues a structure. Poor finances, lack of staff, anger at other institutions, scandal, etc. Sometimes, practical things go wrong with a strong community, such as these things, yet in the best communities there is transparency and communication about the problems going on in the community. Transparency allows for people to see legitimate problems and work together as elite and participant to make a solution which helps the whole community. A lack of transparency causes secrecy, distrust, anger, and finally the dissolution of community.

This lack of transparency is extremely important to examine in the breakdown of community, because it affects our compassion and social justice relations with others. When we can be open with ourselves, and when structures can be open, then love can radiate from the community to those who are outside it. Also, the people in the structure benefit from openness and communication to keep bridges of trust in troubling times. However, this must be an open offer to all in the community, as even the outsider in the community can provide a lot of insight as to why things are happening in the community, and can bring the truth to light if things are hidden. Real compassion is needed to engage people in the community, even if they do not fit the bottom line of the community. However, though real compassion is hard, we cannot let our idolatry keep people out who may have valuable insight to offer for the growth of the community.

Now let's tie the knots of compassion to what I've noted about authority above. In order to heal the systemic brokenness that causes the widow to suffer, we need to reflect on how systems are causing the widow to suffer. Most often, systems seek to keep people out, because it's uncomfortable to engage real suffering. Also, in keeping people out, the bottom line stays "pure", as "pure" as any communal intention can be. (Postmodernism presents with any full communal assent to every truth of a community, and psychology teaches us a lot about brainwashing and how habits and rituals can create this brainwashing.) Therefore, systems can create a distance between people in and out of the community. The brokenness of relationship only carries further when looking to the outsiders of the community.

So who is the poor widow whom we must have responsibility for? It's the person who's suffering from an administration that won't talk to them. It's the person struggling with homework and stressing over exams. It's the person crying in the corner because her parents just died in a tragic accident. It's you and me, at points in our lives, when suffering befalls us, just or unjust, and "when we all need somebody to lean on". Part of living in community with others, and being community for others, greater than our associated bonds, is seeing that real people suffer real drama, and compassion is needed to heal this suffering. Our structures and communities are only good as they allow us to live that real compassion for others. When our structures discourage us from loving our neighbor in a real way, then we have to examine what has gone wrong in community.
So who is the rich businessman? All of us, when we ignore our neighbor and perpetuate structural injustice which harms the good of those in the community and outside it.

And how do we heal this suffering? Love. Love of God, and love of neighbor. It's a risk we all have to take though, as our structures continually tell us to focus on ourselves. Our religion teaches us to focus on our selves and our own sin, our government tells us we have to work for a living and continues to create a system where more and more of our resources go toward sustenance. Our answers are not in what we see as structures in our age. Our answers come from God, and being loving, and being neighborly, and finding the good structures which aid the common good. Please God may we be able to find structures which help the common good, and encourage love of all people.

Aristocrates