Who Weeps For These - What Makes Us Cry

As a young child, my mother taught me a valuable lesson about morbid curiosity. She greatly abhorred the voyeuristic habit of onlookers who would rush to the scenes of car accidents, out of a sick need to satisfy some inner blood lust. Our modern movies and television programs have taken the place of the Roman Colosseum, where our modern morbid curiosity towards violence and gore can be satiated; all from the comfort of our living room couch.

Some would say we have become desensitized by the daily exposure to gruesome scenes in movies and television. Perhaps. But what makes us cry? What really reaches down into the deepest part of us to stab at our heart? Do the morbidly curious onlookers of a car accident, stand there in tears, as they view the suffering of a fellow human being? Are they merely desensitized because of being immersed in the violence of modern entertainment? Or is it the same blood lust which also tempted the ancient Romans, who delighted in the violence of the arena.

When we see images of aborted babies, we are shocked - some are offended - others scandalized - but how many are moved to tears? When we watch scenes of victims of the Nazi death camps on newsreels, or the victims of a tsunami, war or famine, do we weep? Or do we simply retreat somewhere inside ourselves to that place of security, where we are simply glad that it is not us.

What does it take to reach our hearts? The abortion issue is easily relegated to an intellectual and political debate, because of a desensitization that has taken place, long before babies were being killed in the womb. When people used to go to a hanging with picnic baskets, and rush to the scene of a car accident to satisfy their morbid curiosity, or just look on and walk by with indifference, as in the story of the "Good Samaritan".

To be perfectly honest with you, I have seen more people cry over the suffering and abuse of animals, than that of their fellow man. Why? I'm sure each of you has your own ideas of what is at the root of the problem here. And I could go on and on enumerating my many thoughts on the subject. But then this blog would become a novel. I simply want each of us to ask ourselves, what makes us cry? In the well known account of The Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us who is our neighbor; that all are our brothers and sisters, from the poor, the elderly, the disadvantaged to our little brothers and sisters in the womb.

Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts." I am my brother's keeper and he is mine. He weeps for me, and I weep for him.