compassion is more than empathy.42 Empathy allows someone to imagine what the experience of the sufferer might be like, but compassion goes beyond empathy. Compassion characterized Jesus’s earthly ministry, leading him time and time again to heal or help those suffering. To have compassion is, literally, to “suffer with” someone (com meaning “with” and passion meaning “suffer”). Compassion involves “a sense of mature judgment and an understanding of the relatedness of life” and “directs our attention to life and the suffering of others.”
