It is compassion that defines the Christ.

His condemnation of religious rules and accepted practices is always done in the name of compassion. His reaching out to the oppressed and the forgotten is motivated not by social or religious expectation, but by compassion. Even his death, I am convinced, is motivated not by theological formulations or intricate rationales of atonement but only by compassion. In that act, Jesus proclaimed how far his love would take him. He did not condemn. He did not claim the rightness of his position. He simply and sacredly held true to his compassion for others even when it led to the cross.

Such a model informs my own meager attempts at following Jesus. Over everything else, I am convinced, I must seek to be compassionate. I must be open not just to other ways of believing but to the factors that create such beliefs. I must try to enter into the life of another, to love what he loves, to grieve what she grieves. Compassion calls me not to necessarily accept other philosophies unreservedly but it does compel me to seek understanding unconditionally.