Empathy, Sympathy & Compassion
The Fourth Day in Lent
Reflection By Scott Stoner
Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
- Galatians 6:2
As we continue to gain a deeper understanding of compassion, today we will reflect on how it is both similar to and different from empathy and sympathy.
Empathy is the experience of feeling what another person is feeling. If a friend tells us their beloved pet has just died, and we know that feeling ourselves, we will empathize and feel that experience with them.
When we feel sympathy, while we are moved by a person’s suffering, we are not experiencing emotional pain with them. We feel bad that they are suffering, but we aren’t suffering with them. In the example of a friend whose pet died, if I had never experienced the loss of a beloved pet, I would likely feel sympathy for them in that I see their distress and express sorrow for their loss, but I am not joining with them emotionally in their loss.
We move into compassion when empathy or sympathy is joined by a desire to lessen the pain of another. For example, an empathic response might be, “My heart aches for you. I know what that’s like. I am so sorry for your loss.” This expression of empathy moves into compassion when it is joined by a wish to bring some relief to another’s suffering. We might respond, “My heart aches for you. If you need anything, my door is always open, anytime of the day or night.”
These are just some initial thoughts about compassion. We will continue to explore different ways we can both understand and practice compassion throughout Lent. Our hope is that we all be blessed in our desire to deepen the practice of compassion for both others and ourselves.
Making it Personal: How do you distinguish between empathy, sym- pathy, and compassion? Can you think of a time when you felt either empathy or sympathy that was joined with a desire to somehow lessen the suffering of another and were moved to respond in a compassionate way?