GENERATION “ME”

1st READING - Isaiah 7:10-14

P S A L M - Psalms 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

G O S P E L - Luke 1:26-38

SABBATH

While driving one time, I noticed the bumper sticker of the car in front of me. It said, “Everyone is entitled to MY own opinion.” It is a satire of the well-known original, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.” But more than a funny satire, I believe it is an illustration of how our world has become what sociologists call the “Generation Me.” In May 2010, a study came out about the level of empathy among young people. It studied generations of students in the US and revealed a significant drop in the capacity to empathize with others beginning the year 2000. From that year on, the respondents were less attracted and responsive to statements like, “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective,” and “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.” The study opined that technology that brings the world into the palm of one’s hand may have contributed, among many others, to a generation that has the tendency to be competitive, isolated and comfortable at being alone. Genuine compassion didn’t seem to be an attractive value as the findings express. Pity is different from compassion. When one sees a street child, one can feel pity and write a check to an orphanage. Compassion is more than pity. It comes from the Latin cum (with) and pati (to suffer). Therefore compassion is to suffer with. It is a desire to be an equal to the one who has less or is lesser. It moves one to maybe spend a day with the orphans, feeding and taking care of them or volunteering in the soup kitchen project of one’s parish. Today’s Gospel is the Annunciation. At the greeting of the Angel Gabriel and after Mary’s fiat (i.e., “Let it be done unto me…), God, who in Himself is complete and self-sufficient, deigned to be made flesh — to be withhumanity, to be among humanity. Christmas is not about a God who felt pity for humanity. It is about a God who is compassion — the God who deigned to be with the people He loves, to suffer with the people He loves. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. Fr. Joel O. Jason   Reflection Question: What characterizes your feeling towards the less fortunate, — pity or compassion?   Lord Jesus, slowly, draw me and help me to grow in compassion. Amen.   St. Julius, pray for us.