'Compassion born in solitude makes us very much aware of our own historicity. We are not called to respond to generalities but to the concrete facts with which we are confronted day after day. A compassionate man can no longer look at these manifestations of evil and death as disturbing interruptions of his life plan but rather has to confront them as an opportunity for the conversion of himself and his fellow human beings. Every time in history that men and women have been able to respond to the events of their world as an occasion to change their hearts, an inexhaustible source of generosity and new life has been opened, offering hope far beyond the limits of human prediction.

Jesus is the greatest example of compassion that we can imitate. He saw the vast number of people who flocked to him to be taught and to be healed. His heart was moved to concern for them. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He couldn't solve all their problems, but he solved the concerns of one individual at a time. It reminds me of the story of the starfish that were washed upon the shore after a hurricane. A runner was jogging on the beach and saw the vast number of stranded starfish. There was nothing he could do, he thought, until he came upon another jogger who was doing a curious thing. He went to her and asked what was she doing? She said, I am trying to save these stranded starfish. He laughed and said that there were too many. She bent down, picked one up and then threw it into the sea. She said that he was right, she couldn't save them all, but at least she can save one at a time. She had the right understanding of compassion. Reaching one person at a time. We can't solved the hunger of the world. But we can do something for this one hungry person.