One Compassionate Choice at a Time

Caring for the sick is an invitation to learn true compassion. It is not an easy road and one could hardly imagine the lives of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Bro. Richie Fernando S.J., Fr. Richard Ho-Lung and their companions. How did they develop such compassion? Why were they not exasperated?
It is easy to be filled with pity for someone suffering in sickness, or the poor people camped out in evacuation centers. To look at dirty, little ones begging for money. The face of anxiety, pain, and fears. However, to stay with these for a prolonged period is not easy. One is faced with situations not easily changed and may not change. One is faced with circumstances that is not entirely in one's hands. It is so easy to be filled with anguish and have pity and exasperation at the same time.
Love can be strained and really be put to the fire. I can only describe it as "I hate the Philippines I love", or "I hate the poor that I love" or "I hate the person I love".
It is difficult to separate the undesireable situation and the person(s) in it. It is difficult to believe that God is at work in the situation. And yet, within us, we want to care for people and we want to trust God who had created a beautiful world and had blessed us. It would have been easier to be indifferent.
Mother Teresa tries to see the Jesus she loves in all the people she encounters. She is all focused in filling up the thirst of Jesus on the cross. She loves Jesus as unconditional as humanly possible.
Compassion, the true love of others, is then manifestation of how much we love Jesus. To love Jesus even in "distressing disguise". Yes, Mother Teresa is not blind to the "distressing" situations but she is able to see beyond it - a disguise of something opposite of distressing.
Mother Teresa and the rest like her is able to muster compassion and persevere in it by the power of faith. They are sustained by the Sacraments and lived a sacramental life. Their lives were growing in virtues.
Through the Sacraments, these compassionate people lived in Him, through Him, and with Him. In turn, Jesus was able to work in them, through them, and with
them.
For struggling wanna be saints like me, authentic compassion is something to be striven for. An examimed choice/ response can manifest the indifference, exasperation, or compassion and from there make a willful choice to grow in compassion. One compassionate choice at a time.