Compassion requires gentleness.
Another milestone on the walk of Love on the path of the spirit is gentleness. The metaphors of "warrior" and "war" are dropped. They no longer seem appropriate and helpful to one with a nonjudgmental attitude whose life is now based on the faith and trust in Divine Love.
The opposite of gentleness is attack and harm. The desire to harm another is not part of the journey on the path of the spirit. When the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Jesus told Peter to put away his sword. In Matthew 26: 51 it is written "At this, one of Jesus’ companions drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52“Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Gentleness, then, becomes an important milestone on the walk with Love on the path of the spirit for it is a very quality of experience which manifests Love itself. The Dali Lama tells us simply that the path of the spirit is one of kindness. Kindness and harm are opposites.
The measure of a person's life when the person takes stock of his/her life is kindness and a quality of kindness is gentleness.
Gentleness is rarely described as a virtue and yet it is very important as a signifier of compassion which is, as is pointed out, something we UUs covenant together to affirm and promote. I wonder why it isn't talked about more often and recognized as a prime attribute of UU?
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