Compassion.
Two blind men and a Mute (Matthew 9:27)
- Do you believe that I can do this?
- Yes, Lord!
Compassion is an emotional response to suffering that motivates a desire to help. It is more than 'pity', which has connotations of inferiority; and different from 'empathy', which is a vicarious experience of the emotional state of other. It requires imaginative indwelling into another's condition.
Compassion cannot be taught; it requires engagement with suffering, cultural understanding and a mutuality, rather than paternalism. Adverse political, excessively mechanical, and managerial environments discourage its expression.
"I could never even have prayed for this : that you would have pity on me and endure my agonies and stay with me and help me" (Philoctetes by Sophocles, 409 BC).