Hello! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday! On this day, let us strive to always remember the Savior, and all that he has done for us. For those of us who are fasting, let may our fast not be in vain, but be counted in Heaven for our good, and for the good of he or she for whom we wish a special blessing.As a part of my "Best of Me" series, I chose to bring back a post from about 18 months ago on fasting. Enjoy!
EMPATHY--MORE THAN AN INKLING, MORE THAN A FEELING
ORIGINAL POST DATE: SEPTEMBER 20, 2009
I'm Baaack!! Thanks to all those who patiently awaited me getting my act together. It has been a little precarious trying to figure out my Sunday schedule, i.e. when I would take the time to sit down and write a good, thoughtful blog post. I hope that this week does not disappoint; rather, I hope it does the exact opposite, providing direction to those who earnestly seek it.
My thoughts today are a culmination of over two weeks of contemplation, and as such, may seem a bit disjointed, but I will do my best to pull it all together. I want to discuss the doctrine of fasting, but I want to do so in context of the construct of empathy.
The word empathy is derived from the Greek empatheia, which connotes a combination of affection and suffering. It is defined as an intellectual identification with or a vicarious experience of another’s feelings. The definition seems pretty dynamic, but I submit that it has the potential to be even more applicable. Oftentimes empathy can only be reached through learning from personal experience, and then aptly applied to similar situations of others.
Let’s take fasting as an example. From a scholar’s perspective, fasting is going without food or drink for two meals or up to 24 hours, donating the money that would have been used to the needy of the Church, and praying for both personal and impersonal purposes. The scholar perhaps does not see the synergy that these three things produced when righteously combined, but it is invariably unmistakable in the eyes and gait of the true disciple. There’s something about pushing oneself to the edge of their ability, there’s something about putting aside convenience, willingly laying oneself down for a further benefit. This is especially salient when the fast is performed on behalf the welfare of another. This takes faith that one’s own needs will be met as he or she selflessly turns toward someone in greater want, trusting that a loving Heavenly Father will bless others just as the faster has been blessed. He or she who fasts in this vein is overcome with love for God and fellow man, so much that their personal welfare is an afterthought. This is the point at which affection and suffering reach their peak. This is true empathy.
We should all have the goal to reach the point of true empathy, but also understand that we will never fully reach it unless we fully turn to the source of true empathy:
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
--Isaiah 53:4-5
That fount of every blessing (including empathy), of course, is Jesus the Christ. His empathic understanding transcends experience on intellectual or vicarious grounds, for He experienced everything, as is evident in Alma 7:11-12 and D & C 19:16-18:
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
I know that the prophecies in the former scripture were fulfilled, and I know that the words in the latter are the honest, literal words of the Savior through a modern prophet. I am grateful to have a source for my striving, to have a reason to give up my own will, and seek the welfare of others. I hope that one day I will be able to have that type of empathy that only requires love, and nothing else. But for all of us, purification process is necessary. Let us all be ab
le to willingly walk that path. Elder Neal A. Maxwell (Liahona, 1999) said the following:
My thoughts today are a culmination of over two weeks of contemplation, and as such, may seem a bit disjointed, but I will do my best to pull it all together. I want to discuss the doctrine of fasting, but I want to do so in context of the construct of empathy.
The word empathy is derived from the Greek empatheia, which connotes a combination of affection and suffering. It is defined as an intellectual identification with or a vicarious experience of another’s feelings. The definition seems pretty dynamic, but I submit that it has the potential to be even more applicable. Oftentimes empathy can only be reached through learning from personal experience, and then aptly applied to similar situations of others.
Let’s take fasting as an example. From a scholar’s perspective, fasting is going without food or drink for two meals or up to 24 hours, donating the money that would have been used to the needy of the Church, and praying for both personal and impersonal purposes. The scholar perhaps does not see the synergy that these three things produced when righteously combined, but it is invariably unmistakable in the eyes and gait of the true disciple. There’s something about pushing oneself to the edge of their ability, there’s something about putting aside convenience, willingly laying oneself down for a further benefit. This is especially salient when the fast is performed on behalf the welfare of another. This takes faith that one’s own needs will be met as he or she selflessly turns toward someone in greater want, trusting that a loving Heavenly Father will bless others just as the faster has been blessed. He or she who fasts in this vein is overcome with love for God and fellow man, so much that their personal welfare is an afterthought. This is the point at which affection and suffering reach their peak. This is true empathy.
We should all have the goal to reach the point of true empathy, but also understand that we will never fully reach it unless we fully turn to the source of true empathy:
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
--Isaiah 53:4-5
That fount of every blessing (including empathy), of course, is Jesus the Christ. His empathic understanding transcends experience on intellectual or vicarious grounds, for He experienced everything, as is evident in Alma 7:11-12 and D & C 19:16-18:
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
I know that the prophecies in the former scripture were fulfilled, and I know that the words in the latter are the honest, literal words of the Savior through a modern prophet. I am grateful to have a source for my striving, to have a reason to give up my own will, and seek the welfare of others. I hope that one day I will be able to have that type of empathy that only requires love, and nothing else. But for all of us, purification process is necessary. Let us all be ab
le to willingly walk that path. Elder Neal A. Maxwell (Liahona, 1999) said the following:Revealed truths reassure us that we are enclosed in divine empathy. As Enoch witnessed, we worship a God who wept over needless human misery and wickedness (see Moses 7:28–29, 33, 37). Jesus’ perfect empathy was ensured when, along with His Atonement for our sins, He took upon Himself our sicknesses, sorrows, griefs, and infirmities and came to know these “according to the flesh” (Alma 7:11–12).
He did this in order that He might be filled with perfect, personal mercy and empathy and thereby know how to succor us in our infirmities. He thus fully comprehends human suffering. Truly Christ “descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things” (D&C 88:6).
I echo his testimony with my own. May we all continue to emulate the Savior in all that we do! Have a Great Week!
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