He endured, the crown, the nails, and the death in patience. These
unheard of and manifold pains of Christ, our Redeemer and
Bridegroom, move to pity anyone who is capable of feeling pity.
Compassion makes a man observe and note his faults, his want of
power to do any good thing, and weakness in all that pertains to the
glory of God; his lukewarmness and slowness, the multitude of his
faults, the waste of his time, and his positive shortcomings in
virtue and good conduct. All this makes a man truly sorry for
himself. Then his compassion for himself makes him consider his
errors and wanderings, the small care which he has of God and of his
eternal salvation, his ingratitude for all the good that God has
done him, and for all that He has suffered for man. And he considers
also that he is a stranger to the virtues, that he neither knows
them nor practises them, while he is clever and crafty in all that
is bad and unjust; he sees how attentive he is to the loss or gain
of worldly goods, how inattentive and indifferent towards God, the
things of eternity, and his own salvation. This consideration makes
the just man feel a great compassion towards the salvation of all
men. The man will also observe with pity the bodily needs of his
neighbour and the manifold pains of nature, when he sees the hunger
which men suffer, the thirst, cold, nakedness, poverty, contempt,
and oppression; the sadness which they feel at the loss of
relations, friends, goods, honour, and repose; and the innumerable
afflictions to which flesh is heir. All this rouses the just man to
compassion, and he suffers with all men; but his greatest suffering
arises when he sees the impatience of others under their own
sufferings, by which they lose their reward and often deserve hell.
This is the work of compassion and pity.

This work of compassion and love for all men overcomes and removes