Dear Friends:
A friend asked has asked me (rather forcibly):
Do you still love SBU [Southwest Baptist University]? How can you possibly love them after all that they have done (and are doing) to you?!I didn't have the opportunity to answer then, but I would like to do so now by relating an incident that occurred this afternoon.
While I was praying, a curious thought crossed my mind: Must love, in the hearts and hands of Christians, be so pathetic?
"Pathetic?" I thought to myself. "Unfortunately, that's probably disturbingly true."
But as the question resurfaced several times, I was drawn to investigate the meaning of this word "pathetic" at Dictionary.com Unabridged :
PATHETIC -- adjective (reference here)
[Origin: 1590–1600; <>pathéticus <>pathétikós sensitive equiv. to pathét(ós) made or liable to suffer (verbid of páschein to suffer + -ikos]
1. causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable: a pathetic letter; a pathetic sight.
2. affecting or moving the feelings.
3. pertaining to or caused by the feelings.
4. miserably or contemptibly inadequate: In return for our investment we get a pathetic three percent interest.
"Aha, a Greek-rooted word, " I thought. "My favorite!"
As I reviewed each of these four meaning in turn, I realized how aptly these definitions fit most demonstrations of "Christian love" that I have seen within the Christian community.
Such love, sadly is based solely on emotion -- or as the Greek word root indicates sensitivity (Gk pathétikós - sensitive).
Browsing through the associated words, I came across a reference to a another Greek-based word: EMPATHY.
A related word in meaning, yes, but not from the same word root.
I clicked over to the definition of EMPATHY:
A brief mention at the end of the EMPATHY entry advised that I look into another Greek-rooted word:
Do I still love Southwest Baptist University?
Yes, I do.
My love is not derived only from emotion, affection or intellectual identification, but from compassionate sym-pathy.
I suffer with them.
The psychological and physiological definitions of SYMPATHY are particularly instructive and poignant:
I am bound to suffer with them, literally and figuratively, whether I choose to or not, which is why the actions that I must undertake over the next month are all the more arduous and grievous.
Those who claim that I act out of vindictiveness, enmity, or anger, judge me falsely and slander me.
I struggle, as I always have, to love them to the best of my imperfect ability as the Lord has commanded us all: I do strive to love them ... as I love myself.
As I reviewed each of these four meaning in turn, I realized how aptly these definitions fit most demonstrations of "Christian love" that I have seen within the Christian community.
Such love, sadly is based solely on emotion -- or as the Greek word root indicates sensitivity (Gk pathétikós - sensitive).
Browsing through the associated words, I came across a reference to a another Greek-based word: EMPATHY.
A related word in meaning, yes, but not from the same word root.
I clicked over to the definition of EMPATHY:
EMPATHY - noun (reference here)Yes, not the same root at all. EMPATHY is formed from the word root for affection (Gk empátheia), not merely emotion or sensitivity, but affinity, affection and intellectual identification.
[Origin: 1900-05; from Gk empatheia affection, equiv. to em- em-2 + path- (base of paschein to suffer) + -eia -ia; present meaning translates G Einfuhlung]
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.
A brief mention at the end of the EMPATHY entry advised that I look into another Greek-rooted word:
-- Synonyms 1. See SYMPATHY.And so, I did:
SYMPATHY -- noun (reference here)Ah, and, here we have something altogether different: a love built on SHARED SUFFERING (sym- (same) + páth(os) suffering, sensation).
[Origin: 1500-70; from L sympathia from Gk sympatheia, equiv. to sympathe-, s. of sympaths sympathethetic (sym- sym- + path(os) suffering, sensation + -es adj. suffix) + -ia -y3]
1. harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another.
2. the harmony of feeling naturally existing between persons of like tastes or opinion or of congenial dispositions.
3. the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.
4. sympathies,
a. feelings or impulses of compassion.
b. feelings of favor, support, or loyalty: It's hard to tell where your sympathies lie.
5. favorable or approving accord; favor or approval: He viewed the plan with sympathy and publicly backed it.
6. agreement, consonance, or accord.
7. Psychology. a relationship between persons in which the condition of one induces a parallel or reciprocal condition in another.
8. Physiology. the relation between parts or organs whereby a condition or disorder of one part induces some effect in another.
Do I still love Southwest Baptist University?
Yes, I do.
My love is not derived only from emotion, affection or intellectual identification, but from compassionate sym-pathy.
I suffer with them.
The psychological and physiological definitions of SYMPATHY are particularly instructive and poignant:
7. Psychology. a relationship between persons in which the condition of one induces a parallel or reciprocal condition in another.Southwest Baptist University's sufferings, pains, failings, and misery have been, are and will be -- in a very real sense -- mine.
8. Physiology. the relation between parts or organs whereby a condition or disorder of one part induces some effect in another.
I am bound to suffer with them, literally and figuratively, whether I choose to or not, which is why the actions that I must undertake over the next month are all the more arduous and grievous.
Those who claim that I act out of vindictiveness, enmity, or anger, judge me falsely and slander me.
I struggle, as I always have, to love them to the best of my imperfect ability as the Lord has commanded us all: I do strive to love them ... as I love myself.
