Today’s Advent thinking has been around purity verses compassion.

In the gospels we see this all the time with the Pharisees getting so embroiled and concerned about their purity laws and their need for personally being clean before God, that they lose the ability to look upon situations with any compassion. Their negative reactions to healings occurring on the sabbath show this.

If we are called to follow Christ then one thing must always be above the law – and that one thing is love. As we look over our communities, our personal need to be right before God must always be secondary to our love for others. As Bodenheim states:

‘Healing our communities is more important than being concerned about our own holiness.‘

I have reflected here on how often and how regularly I have failed here in different ways. Purity before compassion sounds right as it seems to be echoing the command of putting God first. But the reality of putting God first is authentically displayed in our level of compassion displayed to others over and above our personal needs.