Monday, November 10, 2025
Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461

For a compassionate man nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.

This compassion is authority because it does not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries between languages and countries, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the large world where they can see every human face is the face of a neighbor. Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility of man to forgive his brother, because forgiveness is only real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friends and the sins of his enemy in his own heart.

... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society [1979], New York: Doubleday, 2013, p. 41 (see the book; see also Pr. 19:17; Matt. 9:36; Rom. 12:15; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 4:15; 5:2; 13:3; 1 Pet. 3:8; 1 John 3:17; more at Compassion, Country, Enemy, Fear, Forgiveness, Heart, Neighbor, Poverty, Weakness)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 04/14/16

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