Radical Empathy
I have heard the word "radical" more in the past 7 years than I ever had before in my life. When I joined UCO, I heard a lot about "radical discipleship." The adjective, meaning "rooted," is used to describe a kind of discipleship that is deeply rooted in Jesus Christ.
Several weeks ago, I heard this adjective tied to empathy. In a class about counseling children and youth who have been abused or traumatized, our professor spoke passionately about the need to "radically come alongside the client," to exhibit what my instructor called "radical empathy" - be with the client as they shared about what had happened, their problems, pain, and experience. The teacher spoke of this as being proven to be very "therapeutic" for the child or youth. We have learned about some counselors who come alongside their clients to the degree that they will seek to mirror their client's, especially if it is a young child, affect - facial expression, voice tone, etc. as the client shares in sessions. Children are helped by such radical empathy expressions because of the way they process and experience life at a young age. As the client shares, the counselor is to do whatever it takes to let the client know that they are with the client in their narrative of their experience of trauma or abuse. This is itself an intervention, we say, because trauma and abuse isolate and create a sense of abandonment for the client. The antidote is radical empathy, being a relational presence to the client.
I love the concept of "radical empathy" - is this not what Jesus Christ asks us to do when he asks us to care for those around us and especially to "love [our] enemies"? Radical empathy is something we can all practice in all of our relationships - can we have radical empathy towards our family, friends, co-workers, the cashier at our local gas station or clerk in the grocery store? The driver who we are sure is driving too slow in-front of us? Can we have a degree of compassion and empathy - charity - toward everyone in our lives? The Lord asks this of us. He asks us to have radical empathy toward all those who we encounter. Radical empathy is the cousin of radical discipleship; we are called to radical love of neighbor.
I have a friend who lives by what they they call "the discipleship principle" which states that: Jesus Christ does not ask us to do anything that he himself has not already done. Their principle is upheld in this regard; Jesus Christ has poured out on us "radical empathy." He has come alongside us in such a radical way as to have become one of us. He has done just what I've been instructed to do; he has done whatever it takes to communicate to me that he is with me. This has meant he has died on a cross for me. He has done this to break through and heal my loneliness, isolation, my traumas and abuses big and small which are ultimately, Satan's attacks. Most importantly, his radical empathy, his love for me, has restored me to relationship with the Father. Now having studied counseling, the title that we give him as "Wonderful Counselor" seems all the more apt.