Brokenness and Compassion

Outside Reading: Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son

“In the context of a compassionate embrace, our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it. To understand deeply the mystery of compassion, I have to look honestly at the reality that evokes it.” (p.35).

In this book, Nouwen talks simultaneously about the story of the prodigal son and the Rembrandt painting titled The Return of the Prodigal Son. He talks about the younger son who left and the heartbreak it caused his father. He also talked about the older son and the resentment that he cultivated towards his brother. Ultimately, he relates the story to us. We are the prodigal son, running away from our Father and He is waiting for our return, ready to receive us with great love and joy. However, I think the passage quoted above alludes to a deeper theme in the story, of the value of suffering couched in compassion. Brokenness in the moment can feel ugly, heart-wrenching, miserable, void of all light or joy. As human beings, I think we try to hide our brokenness, desperate for no one to see it because we believe it to be the darkest most unworthy part of ourselves. Indeed, brokenness is indeed messy. But, as Nouwen points out, when brokenness – even the brokenness stemming from our own human condition – is put in the presence of compassion, it becomes beautiful. I think even in nature, we can see this. A thunderstorm can either be a beautiful or terrifying thing. When it looks like a hurricane, it feels like it is unchecked, void of compassion and filled with vengeance, running down anyone who gets in its path. But a rain storm, that brings water to a dry land and fills dry streams with life again, is one that almost seems to be couched in compassion and a desire to aid a hurting earth. So perhaps, nature reflects the compassion and brokenness of the world as well.