God is a compassionate God…who has chosen to be God-with-us…. Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged 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.
– Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A. Morrison, Henri J.M. Nouwen Compassion: a Reflection on the Christian Life