B-TV: Compassion

Bernard Walton and Eugene Meltsner welcome viewers to B-TV from a factory in downtown Odyssey. Eugene proudly begins a special engineering presentation about compression, only for Bernard to explain that the subject is compassion. Mortified by his mistake, Eugene has already given the audience a simple example of compassion: recognizing another person’s distress and wanting to ease it.

Bernard looks beyond pity to mercy and kindness. A performer recites Shakespeare’s description of mercy as a gentle rain that blesses both giver and receiver, though his language requires Bernard to interpret it. To make the idea clearer, Bernard tells of Marty, an elderly shoemaker who works from a basement room with one street-level window.

Marty loves God and prays for an opportunity to see Jesus. One night, as he falls asleep during prayer, a voice tells him to watch the window the next day because the Lord will appear. Marty wakes uncertain whether he has dreamed, but throughout the following cold, snowy day he keeps looking toward the street.

The first person he notices is Steven, an old soldier who earns his basement room by doing chores. Steven becomes weak after shoveling only a little snow. Marty invites him inside, warms him with hot tea, and gives him crackers and cheese. Steven admits that he has not eaten in some time. Once refreshed, he returns to work while Marty resumes watching for Jesus.

B-TV pauses Marty’s day to examine other examples of compassion. Blind Bartimaeus calls to Jesus for mercy, and Jesus restores his sight. In a game show, Courtney explains how Pharaoh’s daughter rescued the infant Moses from the Nile and raised him as her own child. She also tells how King David showed kindness to Jonathan’s disabled son Mephibosheth by restoring his family property and giving him a permanent place at the royal table.

Back at the shoemaker’s shop, Marty sees a poorly dressed young mother shielding her baby from the icy wind. She and the child have not eaten since the previous day, so Marty brings them inside and serves soup and porridge. After learning that the mother pawned her coat for five dollars, he gives her a warm cloak for the baby and money to recover the coat. She leaves in grateful tears.

Another game-show example tells of Androcles, a runaway slave who removes a thorn from a lion’s paw. Later, when both are captured and Androcles is sent into an arena to face a beast, the lion recognizes his friend instead of attacking him. The mercy Androcles first gives returns to him. Bernard connects this to the Golden Rule, while emphasizing that receiving kindness is not the deepest reason to offer it.

Near the end of the day, Marty sees an old woman catch a hungry boy stealing one of her apples. She wants the boy arrested and whipped, but he pleads that his mother and sister depend on him for food. Marty asks what punishment any person would deserve if every sin were treated without mercy. He reminds the woman that God calls people to forgive. She releases the boy, and he responds by offering to pull her heavy grocery wagon home.

That night Marty sadly tells God that the promised visitor never arrived. The voice returns, and Steven, the mother and baby, and the old woman and boy appear one after another. Marty learns that every kindness shown to someone hungry, thirsty, lonely, or poorly clothed has been shown to Jesus. The Lord had come to his window repeatedly, and Marty welcomed him every time.

Bernard concludes that compassion does more than improve human relationships. Mercy reflects God’s own character, draws people closer to him, and answers the compassion Christ has already shown. Eugene’s embarrassing mistake, Marty’s ordinary generosity, and the larger acts from history all reveal that true compassion notices suffering and then acts to relieve it.