Compassion for Martha-Ann?

She’s certainly caused a stir. One side mocks her and calls her the ultimate Karen. The other side condemns her critics and threatens revenge in her defense. She and her neighbors communicate via flags. Flag-on-flag altercations.

It’s so easy to make our comments claiming allegiance to the Pride flag or the Sacred Heart of Jesus flag or any other flag we’d like to imagine. Shame. Distress. Snarky Comments. Secret Recordings.

I certainly have opinions in terms of my own flag preferences but we have got to stop demonizing each other. It’s so easy. It’s so divisive. It nurtures schadenfreude and shrinks splagchnizomai.

Instead of hating each other’s guts we are called to love each other’s guts. That’s what Jesus said.

Σαμαρίτης δέ τις ὁδεύων ἦλθεν κατ᾽ αὐτὸν καὶ ἰδὼν ἐσπλαγχνίσθη
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion Gospel of Luke 10:33.

The Koine Greek word for compassion is splagchnizomai which is so fun to say and so hard to do. It shows up in the Gospels 12 times: 3 in Jesus’ parables, 4 in miraculous feeding stories, 4 in healing stories, and 1 in which Jesus send out disciples to serve people without a shepherd. It means love from the guts.

I know faithful Christians on the left feather of the left wing and on the right feather of the right wing (although we on one side or the other call our theological opposites faithless if not utterly heretical.) It only divides us further to demonize each other especially when Jesus gives us multiple examples of loving someone deeply in our innermost organs even if they are strangers, enemies, or people who annoy us to the point of name-calling on Threads or X.

There are people who stir my insides to the point of rage. One spiritual discipline is to try to see such people through the eyes of Jesus. And frankly, it’s incredibly annoying.

Oh Martha-Ann, Martha-Ann. You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

We need to be like Mary even in a Martha-Ann world. Do I agree with Martha-Ann? Nope. Am I supposed to love her anyway? Yep.