“Brother and Sisters,
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
Forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.”

“Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.”

Can our vocations as Christians be expressed any more directly or forthrightly than Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians?

The Psalm response echoes Ephesians: “Behave like God as his very dear children.”

What is it to be an imitator of God and behave like God? Luke, in a scene exclusive to his gospel, has us reflect on Jesus’s actions: “When Jesus saw [my italics] her,” he was moved to compassion and called out to her that she is freed from her infirmity.

Photographing can be an intensified way of seeing. Often on photographic assignments, especially in the third world, I have prayed for the grace to look at the men and women in my viewfinder with something of the empathy and compassion that God has for them.

If only we could always look upon one another with the compassion God has for us, we would be imitators of God, and begin to bring healing to our wounded world and its many fractured relationships.