From the beginning of his public ministry, large crowds came to Jesus. So many people even tried to touch him that Jesus told them to prepare a boat for him to board (cf. Mark 3:7-10). This was to keep his distance from the crowds.
Early in the morning, Jesus left the crowds and went to a solitary place to pray (cf. Mark 1:35). He even withdrew to the mountains alone to escape the crowds who wanted to make him king (cf. John 6:15). In Caesarea Philippi, following the confession of faith by the Apostle Peter, Jesus foretold his future suffering, death, and resurrection. When Peter strongly resisted, Jesus rebuked him harshly: “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mark 8:33)
All of this was a necessary distance because the salvation that the crowd expected was so different from the salvation he planned.
But that distance was ultimately to become one with us. The best expression of this is ‘compassion.’ Compassion is an expression that often appears in the parables.
Jesus felt compassion when he saw the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd, and he taught them many things (see Mark 6:34). He felt compassion when he saw a leper who desperately begged for healing. He healed him (see Mark 1:41). He felt ‘compassion’ when he saw a widow who had lost her only son and was holding a funeral. He restored her son to life (see Luke 7:13). Jesus’ compassionate heart was a heart that sympathized so much with the plight of others that it made him feel their suffering as if it were his own.
Jesus made not only the painful lives of humans but also their fates of death his own. On the eve of his Passion, when he was overcome with agony before death, he felt such extreme pain that he shed blood and sweat. On the cross, Jesus became one with all the abandoned of the world by crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15:34), and by breathing his last on the cross, he became one with all the dying of the world (cf. Jn 19:30).
All of this stemmed from Jesus’ mercy and love for humanity. Only in mercy and love did Jesus overcome all distances to become one with us. This is the way Jesus loves. Jesus distanced himself from our thoughts, and at the same time, he went beyond that distance to become one with us. By distancing himself, Jesus allowed us to seek, ponder, and find his will.
Sometimes, his thoughts are so different from ours that they seem too unrealistic, so we turn away from him. However, in life, trials and crises come, and in painful moments, there comes a moment when we realize that he is already within us. When I was sick, tired, exhausted, and lonely, he was already in pain with me.
When we look back on our lives and realize that He has always been with us in every twist and turn, we open our hearts wide, face Him, and find that our hearts are transformed like unto His. In this way, we become like Him and become one with Him in love.
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