What Makes People Compassionate

What Makes People Compassionate?

By Maria Serna
Exemplification   Essay
ENC1101
December 4, 2008

          Since long time ago, compassion or empathy has been a very important issue for human beings. We know that some books like the Bible has taught us many rules about how to be compassionate with others. For example, from the Old Testament the rule of sharing bread with others was made when it was a custom to leave leftovers and give them to the poor. This rule about breaking off the bread and leaving leftovers is still existence today. There are two reasons that make people compassionate, they want to show consideration for others, and they want to make a difference in their lives.
          The first thing that makes people considerate is that they display thoughtfulness or empathy for others. This means that empathy lets people understand or identify with other’s feelings or difficulties. For instance, Mother Teresa, who was an exceptional women that won the first Nobel Prize for her humanitarian work, always showed a strong devotion to help needy people. While she was riding a train to the mountain town of Darjeelin to recover from tuberculosis, she said “she received a call from God” to serve the sick and poor people. Due her sickness, she could feel empathy and identify with   others who were sick as well. Likewise, Dr. Norman Vincent (2005) says, “Empathy is a quality that enables a person to see into the mind or heart of someone else, to understand the pain or happiness , and to do something to minimize it“. In other words, people are compassionate when they share somebody’s else feelings, and realize that their basic needs are similar to theirs.
          The second thing that makes people compassionate is that they want to make a positive change in people’ lives. It means that people act toward others in the way they benefit others and influence their lives in a positive way.   The following story show an example of how compassionate people can...