Compassion

There is a French play with a passage in it that might go on haunting you all week long if you let yourself think about it. All the good people are at the gates of heaven on the day of judgment. The gates are about to be opened and the people can hardly wait to get in. (We can only imagine what this would mean to a person: to come to the end and realize that heaven is here and I’m here and I’m about to go into my reserved place.) And then a rumor starts. Even at the gates of heaven, it seems, rumors start. “I understand,” someone says, “He is going to forgive those others too!” For a moment, the people are absolutely dumfounded, speechless. Then they look at each other, and start to gasp and sputter in disbelief, all trying to talk at the same time: “After all the trouble I went through!” “If only I had known this, things sure would…