The word compassion is derived from the Latin.
The verb 'pati' is to
suffer and 'cum' means with, giving a literal translation TO SUFFER WITH.
Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to
share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish.
Compassion challenges us
to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those are lonely, to weep with
those in tears.
Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable and powerless with the powerless.
Compassion is not a bending towards the underprivileged from a position from
a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are
less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy, or pity, for those who
fail to make it in the upward pull.
On the contrary compassion means going
directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a
home there.
Henri Nouwen
