Self-Preservation (& the Death of Empathy)

A Homily for the 15th Week of Ordinary time 2025

If I was to say to you: splagchnizomai you might be tempted to respond: Gesundheit! And if you did you wouldn’t be too far off!

“Splagchnizomai” is the biblical Greek word for “Gut-Wrenched.” And, as you probably know, “Gesundheit” is a German word meaning: “Health” or “to your health.” And it is the correct response because the state of our own health: physical, spiritual, and psychological, as individuals and as communities, is directly dependent on our willingness to allow ourselves to be “Gut-Wrenched.”

I’ve entitled this homily: “Self-Preservation & the Death of Empathy.” Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis, like a good and gifted doctor, diagnosed the disease at the heart of the church and at the heart of Christian Discipleship. And the disease is named: “Self-Preservation” and the victim is named “Empathy.”

In examining the clergy sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis understood it as an ugly manifestation of the institutional church’s obsession with self-preservation at all costs. I believe he then went on to apply the same diagnosis to Christian Discipleship, which had also turned in on itself, hidden behind church walls, rectory doors, and the inane arguments over purity of doctrine. A fixation on whose right and whose wrong. Whose in and whose out! The prognosis: If self-preservation continues as the primary concern of the church and disciples alike, not only will more diseased behavior infect the world, but empathy itself will die as the saving and healing message of Jesus Christ will fall silent.

The parable of the Good Samaritan, of course, is Jesus’ original diagnosis of the same disease. The death knell of empathy rings out when the scholar of the law asks: “And who is my neighbor?” In that question is hidden a self-preserving mindset that believes: “I get to decide who is neighbor!” “I get to decide to whom I will and will not extend help!” The death of empathy is then made manifest as a living reality by the priest and the Levite who, by law-protected, self-justification, see the injured man and perform the move so well-practiced by self-preservers: “They pass by on the other side.”

But the Samaritan, the unlikeliest of persons, allows himself to be “Gut-Wrenched” and he allows the visceral impact of his pity, mercy, and compassion to draw him near to the one in need and not only attend his needs, but overextend his help as well. The Good Samaritan knows in his very entrails that being “Gut-Wrenched” must draw him toward his brother or sister in need. And all he has to do is let the wrenching of his gut, at the sight of the injured man, draw him closer. God will do the rest!

I’m afraid we live increasingly in a world where the business of anesthetizing ourselves against “Splagchnizomai” is a very successful enterprise. It’s no longer that we feel “Gut-Wrenched” and then decide to act or not act, it’s that we are neck-deep into numbing ourselves against even feeling “Gut-Wrenched.” We turn in on ourselves. We turn in on our own protected communities of likeness. We turn in on our own church groups. We turn in on our own political factions. We turn in on arguing issues of liturgy, orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Meanwhile the disease metastasizes. Empathy falls ill and dies. And then what will save us?

We have to let ourselves be “Gut-Wrenched.” We have to, at least, recover the ability to be “Gut-Wrenched’ and then choose NOT to pass by on the other side… whatever that may mean for us. We need to name and choose against our own particular methods of numbing out and let ourselves feel, if we just let ourselves feel again, then God can step in and bring about the kind of healing of which we can only hope and dream.

We’ve lost sight of a fundamental truth: I am only as healthy as my weakest brother or sister. I am only safe in as far as my most vulnerable sister or brother is safe. I am only alive in as far as my brothers and sisters also know life!

This is not something remote from us… we live too much in a world where everything and everyone is remote. We don’t have to ask someone to go up into the sky to retrieve it, or go across the ocean to bring it to us. It’s already in our hearts… the ability to be “Gut-Wrenched.” All we have to do is carry it out and then God can carry out the healing that is most needed.