Jenny Parker- The Phenomenology of Prayer II

"We are reminded in these stories that God allows bad things to happen to good people" (Benson p.24). My grandpa had a heart of gold yet his heart failed him, and he recently passed. He was in the hospital for a full month before his passing, and every time I would get on the phone with my mom I could feel her heartache. I was empathizing with her. In our class reading The Phenomenology of Prayer it talks about empathy, "we allow the other, at least as long as empathy lasts, to incarnate himself in us" (Benson p.69). I felt myself doing this with my mom. I knew how bad she was hurting because she did not want to say goodbye to her dad. This even happened with me when I got to Georgia for my Grandpa's viewing and funeral. I could just feel others empathy for our family. They hugged us and empathized with us. Through reading this book I have learned what happened, "empathy involves both a self-emptying and an assumption of the other - a letting him or her come to be in our person" (Benson p. 69). Through our tears, that "fuel grief or mourning" (Benson p. 54), others were able to feel what we were feeling. Empathy is a beautiful thing because it allows others in to our own world and to see how we are feeling so they can understand our situation better.