Choosing Compassion Over Fear - Father Dave's Blog

“At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way, they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did”” (Luke 13:1-3)

Hi Fighter,

Some tragedies leave us speechless. Others leave us full of questions. We are not told who raised the issue of these murdered Galilean worshippers – whether it come from Jesus’ disciples or from some antagonists, but we can gauge from Jesus’ response what motivated them – namely, fear.

I still remember a conversation I had with a Filipino priest back in the 1980’s during my one and only trip to Manilla. I was there at a time of extreme political upheaval, and the priest told me how he’d been on a crowded bus when it pulled up alongside a pile of dead bodies by the side of the road. Evidently, there had been another mass shooting.

The priest said that the others in the bus stopped reading their newspapers for a moment, looked at the carnage on the street and commented, “those people must have done something really bad”, and then went back to their papers.

It makes sense. It’s a way of coping with the all-too-fragile nature of life. People who get gunned down by the side of the road, like people who get cut down while making their sacrifices at the temple, must be bad people. God wouldn’t allow something like that to happen to a decent person like me. Therefore, I have nothing to fear.

I’m guessing that it was the same sort of fear that motivated one of the comments I received to one of my TikTok videos this week, suggesting that innocent Alawites and Christians were being murdered in Syria. Someone responded, “No they are not. .. There is no proof. Only Alawite criminals from the regime have been killed.’

I don’t know whether that person was writing from Syria or from a safe distance. Either way, the thought that innocent children, women and men, can be dragged from their homes and shot in the street is not just disturbing but unnerving.

We want to believe that the world is a just place. We want to feel safe. If churchgoing, law-abiding citizens can be shot down at the side of the road or randomly dragged from their houses and killed, who’s to say I might not be next? We have a need for safety, yet Jesus seems entirely unsympathetic. “Suck it up”, He seems to say. “You could be next!”

It’s a conundrum. We believe that God is our strength and refuge (Psalm 46), and that God is able to save us from the worst fiery furnace (Daniel 3:17-19). Even so, we know it doesn’t always work that way. On the contrary, as Augustine recorded in his City of God, when Rome was finally overrun and destroyed, wherever the axe fell, there people died. The sword didn’t discriminate between the good, the bad and the ugly, and our experience confirms this – that being pious, godly and loving does not shield anyone from life’s tragedies. Far from it!

“Unless you repent you will all perish as they did”” (Luke 13:3)

It’s a tough thing to say, but we should be clear about what Jesus means. The Greek word for ‘repent’ here is ‘metanoia’, which is itself a combination of two other Greek words – ‘meta’, meaning to move beyond, and ‘nous’, meaning mind. To experience metanoia then is to transition to a different state of mind – to undergo a pschological and emotional reboot. In other words, Jesus is telling us that we need to look at things in an entirely different way.

If the news coming out of Syria and Gaza makes us scared or depressed, we need a metanoia. We need to move beyond distress and judgement to a place where we can pray and act effectively. We need the mind of Jesus – a mind that feels the pain but is not disabled by it, a mind that responds not with fear, but with compassion.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another terrific Sunday Eucharist last weekend, and it was wonderful, as ever, to have Karyn Hemming and Andrew Logan with me on the panel. I’ve pasted this week’s most popular shorts below.

As ever, you can see all the other shorts on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, and you can watch the entire replay of last Sunday via our YouTube channel.

I’m looking forward to having my old friends, Doug Pyeatt and Andrew Madry, on the panel with me this week. Join us from middayc@ TheSundayEucharist.com or Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard.

I look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you.

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What’s On?

Saturday, March 22^nd – Boxing @Legends Gym in Kensington from 3.00 pm
Sunday, March 23^rd – Our Eucharist from midday via thesundayeucharist.com (or Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard).
Tuesday, March 25^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Thursday, March 27^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Friday to Sunday, March 28 to 30 – @Binacrombi. Please join me
Thursday, April 3^rd – “Who owns the Holy Land?” @Saint Paul’s, Burwood

It’s been a big week of prayer and protest for Syria. Thousands attended the protest last Sunday, though it received almost no media attention. Our mid-week Candlelight Service for Syria also had more people attending than the Melkite Cathedral could hold, and it was my privilege to speak at that gathering.

I’ll post the reflection I gave at the vigil at the end of this newsletter, and I’ll paste a short immediately below from Sarah Saadat, entitled, “I am the daughter of Syria”.

I’m archiving all the talks given at the vigil on www.prayersforsyria.com. Three videos published. Three to go. Check in over the next few days. They should all be there.

For more comprehensive and up-to-date information on Syria, I still recommend the following sources:

Unfortunately, it’s much harder to find accurate information on Syria through mainstream media. The myth that only ‘Assad loyalists’ are being killed continues to be the dominant narrative pushed by those who are complicit in this attempted genocide, and with mobile phones being confiscated in Alawite and Christian areas across the country, it could become increasingly difficult to prove otherwise.

Having said that, credit is due to the one man in our Australian Parliament who is pushing back against the tide of misinformation about Syria – namely, Senator Gerrard Rennick. Read his well-informed and courageous statement here.

click for the full-size image

Finally, I’m trying to organise another webinar on Syria this week. Former Australian Senator, George Christensen and I plan to interview my good friend, Mimi al-Laham, better known as ‘Syrian Girl’.

We intend to stream the interview as a webinar this Wednesday (March 26) at

6.30 to 7.30 pm, Brisbane time (where George is)
730 to 8:30 pm, Sydney time (where I am)
430 to 5:30 pm, Perth time (where Mimi is)

Put the event in your diary, please. I’ll send you more details over the next few days.

I appreciate, of course, that all this talk and prayer in support of Syria won’t necessarily save the lives of our dear sisters and brothers who are at risk. Even so, we must stand with them, as Jesus stands with them. We must do whatever we can, and we must reach out to them, not in despair or in fear but with compassion.

Your brother in the Good Fight,