My wife and I were doing door to door for our church and came across a gentleman that pretty much stumped me on his response to our attempt to explain the Catholic faith. He claimed he reads everything from the Bible to the Koran, but basically my understanding he believed that our minds had the power to lead ourselves and the spirituality is from within us. We had a decent discussion but towards the end he started taking over it and finally he said we should read the Koran and offered us a copy, we didn't know what to say and didn't want to be rude. When he came back, he instead offered a book on Krishna. We weren't sure exactly at that time what it was but it seemed related to Hinduism. We told him we couldn't accept the book and he replied with the strange response , "Have compassion brother!". We tried to explain why we couldn't accept but he repeated again before he closed the door, "Have compassion brother"
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To this day I still think about his response, of course my wife and I wanted to counter his response but in the same time were thrown off. Reflecting on what he said, I finally looked up what really compassion means in the dictionary, it notes "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering", Wow, now I was really confused why he would have that response. I'm not sure since we rejected his offer to read the book, that we offended him or that we weren't open to his theology.
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However, maybe this person was crying for help, he did seem sincere and seem to want to find God but didn't really know how. He seemed to have the intellect but his faith clearly seemed boxed in in regarding the ability of our minds being like God. Maybe he wanted us to understand his level of spirituality before he could accept ours. To be honest, certainly didn't think I could risk reading something like that, no disrespect to Hindu's because I have many Indian friends, but Hinduism and Christianity just doesn't mix, which is part of the so called "New Age". No better to safeguard my faith, I have been down that road thinking Karma and re-incarnation was real, have no intention of going back down there.
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I was also thinking, maybe God was working through this person to remind us that we do need to be more compassionate. As Catholics there is really only one way doing that, that is to truly love our neighbor as our selves by do the works of mercy such as serving the poor, visiting those in prison, etc. Jesus certainly had compassion, especially within his ministry where the Catechism section 1506 notes the following" Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them."
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But also to have compassion we need to be like the church , who offer forgiveness through Jesus to all, but in return forgive those who hurt us one way another. Only then can we truly be compassionate, maybe that is what my brother was trying to tell me. So "Have Compassion Brother and Sisters!"
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; ;Have Compassion Brother;Story of talking with a person while trying to explain the Catholic Faith to a person who is in new age;
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2011-09-07 22:34:00;
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