Compassion can ease the world's pain and sadness
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A community's spirit of compassionate help was tested on April 19, 1995, when a terrorist-planted bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Okla., taking 168 people to their deaths and injuring countless others, recounted President Thomas S. Monson Saturday morning.
Speaking on the topic of compassion, President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, recalled a recent visit to the entrance of the "beautiful and symbolic memorial" which graces the area where the Murrah building once stood.
His host explained that the community, and all the churches and citizens in it, were galvanized together by the disaster. In their grief they became strong.
Looking at the memorial, President Monson turned his thoughts to the musical play, "Camelot." He said, "King Arthur, in his dream of a better world, an ideal relationship one with another, said, as he envisioned the purpose of the round table, 'Violence is not strength, and compassion is not weakness.' "
President Monson noted that a stirring account of compassion is found in the Old Testament. Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, took compassion on them years later when they needed food.
"Joseph could have dealt harshly with his brothers for the callous and cruel treatment he had earlier received from them," President Monson declared. "However, he was kind and gracious to them and won their favor and support with these words and actions: 'Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.' " (Genesis 39:7.)
Another example of compassion, said President Monson, is the Samaritan who helped the man fallen among thieves along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. "Now as then," President Monson told Church members, "Jesus would say to us, 'Go and do thou likewise.' "
He noted that Jesus provided many examples of compassionate concern: "the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda; the woman taken in adultery; the woman at Jacob's well; the daughter of Jairus; Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha — each represented a casualty on the Jericho road. Each needed help."
President Monson explained that the Savior always showed unlimited capacity for compassion.
"We have no way of knowing when our privilege to extend a helping hand will unfold before us. The road to Jericho each of us travels bears no name and the weary traveler who needs our help may be one unknown."
President Monson then shared a letter written to Church headquarters with no return address.
In the letter, a man detailed the kind care he received from an LDS couple when he stopped over in Salt Lake City during a journey by bus. They gave him needed shelter, food and arranged for him to go to a clinic so that he could replace medicine he had overlooked bringing. In return, they asked only that he repay them "by showing gentle kindness to some other troubled soul along your road."
Citing another example, President Monson said that at one privately owned and operated care facility in Salt Lake City compassion reigned supreme. The facility had a "waiting list of patients who desired to live out their remaining days under [Edna Hewlett's] tender care, for she was an angelic person. She would wash and style the hair of every patient. She cleansed elderly bodies and dressed them with bright and clean clothing."
Then President Monson spoke of another group of people who need compassion — those bereaved as death calls on them to "bid farewell to a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a mother, a father or a cherished friend."
"Let us remember that after the funeral flowers fade, the well wishes of friends become memories and the prayers offered and words spoken dim in the corridors of the mind," he said. "Those who grieve frequently find themselves alone. Missed is the laughter of children, the commotion of teenagers, and the tender, loving concern of a departed companion."
President Monson continued, "In His compassion and according to His divine plan, holy temples bring peace that surpasses understanding to Heavenly Father's children.
"Today, under the leadership of President Gordon B. Hinckley, the number of new temples constructed and under construction staggers the mind to contemplate. Heavenly Father's compassionate concern for His children here on earth and for those who have gone beyond mortality merits our gratitude to Heavenly Father's children.
"Thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His example, for His gospel and for His blessed atonement."
In closing, President Monson returned his thoughts to Oklahoma City.
"To me," he said, "it is beyond mere coincidence that now a temple of the Lord, in all its beauty, stands in that city as a heaven-sent beacon to mark the way to joy here on earth and eternal joy hereafter."
