Principals Reflection

Plato is quoted as saying, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” This sense of compassion – a key Mercy value for St Patrick’s – is a desire to see others free from unnecessary suffering; unnecessary because intrinsic to growth is a realisation that we all need to have elements of resilience and fortitude to face the inevitable challenges that present themselves to every ‘man, woman and beast.’ The Gospels highlight how strongly aligned compassion was in Jesus’s teachings and actions, from Mark’s (6:34) reference (“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.”) to Matthew’s (14: 13,14) account of Jesus’s response to the doggedness of his followers despite his quest for solitude at times (“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick”), Jesus’s example to us is his defining ‘Compassion’ very much as a verb, an action word.

An old and dear friend of mine recently died and had spent the final few weeks in palliative care. In my efforts to be of support I undertook some research of palliative care, and it came as no surprise that the wonderful care that my friend received aligned with a 2017 study from the journal ‘Palliative Care’ that examined constructs of sympathy, empathy, and compassion, with all three terms containing distinct themes and sub-themes.

• Sympathy was described as an unwanted, pity-based response to a distressing situation, characterized by a lack of understanding and self-preservation of the observer.
• Empathy was experienced as an affective response that acknowledges and attempts to understand the individual’s suffering through emotional resonance.
• Compassion enhanced the key facets of empathy while adding distinct features of being motivated by love, the altruistic role of the responder, action, and small acts of kindness. Patients reported that unlike sympathy, empathy and compassion were beneficial, with compassion being the most preferred and impactful.

The 14th Dalai Lama, born to humble farmers and one of 16 children, is quoted as having said, “Compassion is not religious business, it is human business; it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability - it is essential for human survival.” Compassion is the key Mercy Value that staff of St Patrick’s are discerning during two afterschool sessions this week and next week, each being two and a half hours in duration. As already stated, there are numerous references to Jesus showing considerable compassion to many in his intimate and wider circle and for some, if not many, in our own school and the wider community, our capacity to display compassion can be compromised by our perception of the dynamics of the term – are displays of compassion indicators of supporting and fostering dependency and, therefore, fostering weakness regardless of how well-intended the goals; or are displays and efforts of compassion indicators of strength of purpose for a better common good? Jesus’s teachings, I believe, certainly indicate the strength needed to ‘action compassion’, and the Dalai Lama supports this by stating that “Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” 

We help shape the communities we live in whether they are workplaces, schools, households; treating everyone with kindness and respect - being compassionate - shifts the focus from ME and MY sense of entitlement to the real needs of others. Research highlights that once we become compassionate and society less fragmented, our own anxiety levels go down because we adopt a more compassionate frame of reference, often resulting in a diminishing of our appreciation of needs; looking ‘inwards’ is our natural response to anxiety and self-absorption, and this is the exact opposite of what we need to remediate anxiety. Compassion appears to be key in this contextualising our needs and expectations in the light of a bigger picture. The notion that we are all entitled to happiness is contrary to being compassionate. Apart from our families, our local neighbourhood (or school, for students) remains the most important ‘boundary’ and is essential to our mental health and well-being regarding how we involve ourselves in this ‘shared space’. Colleagues and family are different from our neighbours or fellow students; we don’t choose our neighbours or fellow students - they are different, and we are initially wary, but the key to our moral formation is being able to build bridges across the chasm of difference - unless I can treat ‘him or her’ with respect and compassion, I am failing as a person. Or to put this in the words of Buddha, “In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength.” Thanks to all in our school community who actively embrace a compassionate attitude.

Regards,

Rod Linhart

(Principal)