[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
 James Martin, SJ [@JamesMartinSJ](/creator/twitter/JamesMartinSJ) on x 282.6K followers
Created: 2025-07-24 14:49:47 UTC
Re: the idea that empathy or compassion is bad or even "toxic," a belief held by some Christians today.
There is problem with that belief, and that problem comes from Jesus himself.
Over and over in the Gospels, an important word is used to describe what Jesus feels whenever he sees someone who is poor, or hungry or struggling. Most English-language translations say that upon seeing suffering, Jesus's "heart was moved with pity." In Matthew 9:36, when Jesus sees hungry crowds, "like sheep without a shepherd," the Greek word used to describe his feeling is σπλάγχνον ("splagchnon").
Basically, that word means that he felt compassion in his spleen, or as we might say, in his "guts," the seat of emotion in the Hellenistic world. It is an almost physical reaction to seeing someone suffer.
That word is used repeatedly in the Gospels to describe Jesus's emotional reactions. Jesus himself also uses the same word in some of his most famous parables: for example, to describe the feelings of the Good Samaritan towards the man by the side of the road (Luke 10:33), or the compassion of the loving father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:20).
In other words, Jesus himself felt compassion so intensely that he felt it in his guts. And his own parables invite us to feel that same compassion ourselves.
Sympathy is feeling how you would feel if you were suffering like the other person. Empathy is feeling how they would feel. Compassion is the willingness to suffer what they are suffering, alongside them.
Jesus felt deep compassion, in his guts, for anyone who was poor, sick, hungry or struggling in any way. For the Christian, then, empathy is not a sign of weakness but of strength, as we follow Jesus along the road of compassion.
XXXXXX engagements
[Post Link](https://x.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1948395190244262042)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ on x 282.6K followers
Created: 2025-07-24 14:49:47 UTC
Re: the idea that empathy or compassion is bad or even "toxic," a belief held by some Christians today.
There is problem with that belief, and that problem comes from Jesus himself.
Over and over in the Gospels, an important word is used to describe what Jesus feels whenever he sees someone who is poor, or hungry or struggling. Most English-language translations say that upon seeing suffering, Jesus's "heart was moved with pity." In Matthew 9:36, when Jesus sees hungry crowds, "like sheep without a shepherd," the Greek word used to describe his feeling is σπλάγχνον ("splagchnon").
Basically, that word means that he felt compassion in his spleen, or as we might say, in his "guts," the seat of emotion in the Hellenistic world. It is an almost physical reaction to seeing someone suffer.
That word is used repeatedly in the Gospels to describe Jesus's emotional reactions. Jesus himself also uses the same word in some of his most famous parables: for example, to describe the feelings of the Good Samaritan towards the man by the side of the road (Luke 10:33), or the compassion of the loving father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:20).
In other words, Jesus himself felt compassion so intensely that he felt it in his guts. And his own parables invite us to feel that same compassion ourselves.
Sympathy is feeling how you would feel if you were suffering like the other person. Empathy is feeling how they would feel. Compassion is the willingness to suffer what they are suffering, alongside them.
Jesus felt deep compassion, in his guts, for anyone who was poor, sick, hungry or struggling in any way. For the Christian, then, empathy is not a sign of weakness but of strength, as we follow Jesus along the road of compassion.
XXXXXX engagements
