Article May 21, 1955 Issue

WHAT IS COMPASSION?

THOMAS B. HUDSON

In various places in the Gospels it is recorded that Jesus had compassion. Perhaps the best-known example is his forgiveness of Mary Magdalene's sins, related in the seventh chapter of Luke. Commenting on this incident in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 363), "He regarded her compassionately,"

According to Cruden's Concordance, the literal meaning of the word "compassion" is "suffering with another." If that is the true meaning of this word, how could Jesus, who was spotlessly perfect, be compassionate? Wherein lies the compassion that enabled him to say, "Thy sins are forgiven"?

Implicit in the Tenets of Christian Science is the doctrine that suffering and sin are unreal (see Science and Health, p. 497). The truth of this doctrine is seen and understood only in the light of another basic teaching of Christian Science, namely the allness of spiritual good. Jesus' compassion incorporated such wisdom, strength, and unselfed love that, when shared with Mary Magdalene, it brought to her the proof of the nothingness of evil. True forgiveness destroys evil.

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