Empathy Is Not Weakness by the Reverend Dr. Michael Piazza

Empathy Is Not Weakness
by the Reverend Dr. Michael Piazza

At the heart of the Christian faith is a God who chose to draw near. In the Incarnation, God did not observe human suffering from a distance but entered into it, taking on flesh, knowing hunger and grief, weeping at a tomb, and, ultimately, enduring the cross. This is the ultimate act of empathy, and it forms the foundation for how Christians are called to relate to one another and to the world.

Empathy is more than a social skill or an emotional instinct. For the Christian, it is a spiritual discipline, a deliberate practice of entering into the experience of another person with genuine care and without judgment. It is the lived expression of the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. You cannot truly love someone you refuse to understand or feel with.

The Gospels are filled with moments in which Jesus stopped, looked, and truly saw the person in front of Him. He saw the shame of the woman at the well, the desperation of the father with a sick child, the loneliness of Zacchaeus perched in a tree. He did not simply fix their problems from a place of detachment; He entered their stories. His compassion was always personal, always particular, always costly.

Empathy also guards against some of the most persistent failures of religious life. It is difficult to dehumanize someone whose pain you have allowed yourself to feel. It is harder to dismiss the stranger, the poor, or the marginalized when you have made the effort to truly listen to them.

To follow Christ is to practice the art of paying attention: to see, to listen, to feel with, and to act. Empathy is not weakness. For the Christian, it is obedience and seeking to reincarnate the image and likeness of God.

Blessings,
Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza

Rev. Piazza is a nationally-known author, activist, and church growth consultant.
He is the founder and president of Agile Church Consulting and the co-pastor of Progressive Spirit UCC (formerly Arlington Congregational Church) in Jacksonville, Florida

You can follow him on Facebook and Bluesky

Main Menu

Back to What's New