St. Leo the Great said that “Jesus is the hand of God’s mercy stretched out to us.” The Gospels report that Jesus often performed miracles without being asked, as a sign that God’s love always takes the first step. Jesus reached out and touched people’s lives in real and life-giving ways, showing that “God has looked favorably on His people!” – or, as the Jerusalem Bible translates it, “God has visited His people.”
The same Jesus reaches out to us today in any situation where we have a need for His presence and power, for example, in grief and loss … and He often does so without waiting to be asked. When we are at our lowest and most vulnerable, His compassion is our support. In light of this, we need not carry our grief on our own, for He carries it with us. Literally, Jesus suffers with us – “to suffer with” is the literal meaning of compassion. The Lord, “who has visited His people” and who shows us compassionate love, wants us to be channels of His compassion to others in their hour of need, to carry each other’s burdens, as He so willingly carries ours. May He fill our hearts with love and gratitude as we respond to His call.
