If you look up compassion in the dictionary, you will see the following definition: A deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it. The construct of compassion is not clearly defined in psychological literature. Another definition of compassion is a feeling of sorrow or concern for another person's suffering or need, accompanied by a subsequent desire to alleviate the suffering. Compassion is felt as an emotion: a feeling that anyone may experience at some point in his or her lives. There are many instances where one may perceive specific conditions in which people will be more likely to feel compassion. There are also differences in the degree of an individual’s feelings of compassion, and that many people and cultures view compassion as a basic human value. If I see someone in pain or someone struggling, my first instinct is to help, to listen, to be there for them. I will be there if someone needs help, if someone needs an ear, if someone just needs another friendly person who can provide a simple thing: to acknowledge that they are here, and that their gripe is valid. I would rather live like that. It does not always make life easier for the listener, though.
The Bible tells us of the many selfless and compassionate acts that Jesus performed during his time on
Earth and His teachings to his disciples and followers about this topic. Jesus extends the virtues of mercy and compassion to us for our faulots, which may have resulted from the temptations of our bodily needs, and specifically uses them to show His uncommon power to overcome these weaknesses. On a day-to-day basis, we are more aware of our physical circumstances than we are of our spiritual conditions. Although we exhibit a natural tendency to reject His offer of mercy, we should come to understand that the opportunity to receive spiritual help from Jesus is more important than what is merely required for our physical bodies. The experiences that Jesus had with confronting and ultimately resisting earthly temptations, and His final martyr-like suffering, put Him in a unique position to help us. In addition, by his example, we are inspired to be merciful and compassionate to one another.

In the book, The Road, the story tells the tale of a boy and his father, traveling south to escape the hard winter that is falling in a world devastated by an unnamed apocalyptic event, most likely a nuclear war. Along their harsh and dangerous journey, they encounter other survivors, most are of the unsavory variety, be it cannibals, thieves or rapists. McCarthy uses his book to examine why it is that some humans continue to hold onto hope in the face of such overwhelming odds, and why it is that others give up when faced with the same situations.
The father, who, like his son, remains unnamed throughout the entire story, feels obligated to keep on living in order to protect his remaining flesh and blood; his only child. His loyalty to the boy is so deep and profound that when his son asked, “what would you do if I died?” , the father replies, “if you died I would want to die too. So I could be with you.” (McCarthy’s The Road Chapter 11) The son is another example of a compassionate soul, for he is someone who is willing to put in the work to help others, and thereby improve the world around him, while the rest of humanity is running astray. He is similar by example to that of Jesus Christ- constantly looking for the good in people and the world. An incident where the son proves his compassion towards humanity is during the encounter with a wandering old man, whom the father is coaxed into feeding, by the pleading of the son. The father does not want to help, yet he sees his son has a need to, and asks, “What do you want to give him?” The boy replies, “We could cook something on the stove. He could eat with us.” The man is unwilling to hazard any exposure to find out whether this man is good or not, while the boy desires to renew some sort of social compact with the traveler. (McCarthy’s The Road 165) The boy wants to give constantly to others. Throughout the book, the man gives his son moral guidance and teaching, something the son hungers for, which relates to Jesus’ childhood in Jerusalem. The boy needs continual reassurance from his father that they are the “good” guys, and that there are other good guys to be found among the land. The father says, “This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They don’t give up.” (McCarthy’s The Road 137) Jesus never gave up in the quest to be a good person and spread the word of God. Similarly, the child must never give up either. People may do wrong or have wrong done to them, but That does not allow them to end the narrative they wove

through the generations. They continue down the road, doing the best they can because they have no other choice. For the son, his belief in the goodness of humankind is tested repeatedly, but he never loses his faith in it. Jesus, too, was tempted by sin many times yet he never diverged. The boy stands for the fight to stay human.
The Christian Bible's Second Epistle to the Corinthians is but one place where God is spoken of as the "Father of compassion" and the "God of all comfort" (1.3). Jesus embodies for Christians, the very essence of compassion and relational care. Christ challenges Christians to forsake their own desires and to act compassionately towards others, particularly those in need or distress.
The movie DOGMA is about the eternal war between Good and Evil, which has come to New Jersey, of all places, in the late 20th Century. In this comic fantasia, angels, demons, apostles, and prophets (of a sort) walk among the multitudes of both cynics and innocents of America and fight for the fate of humankind.
This movie is a comedic parable, about two renegade fallen angels who attempt to change the entire cosmological system, unless a group of misfit humans can stop them. Bethany, the heroine of the movie is a woman who feels her prayers haven't been answered when, out of nowhere, a heralding angel appears in her bedroom and declares her to be nothing less than the potential savior of humanity. This abrupt unexpected meeting sets her off on an extraordinary journey of mystery, comedy, and suspense as she is transported to a fantastical world populated by celestial characters and full of spirited adventure. Along the way she will meet up with a motley cast of characters, including a Heaven-sent messenger, an apostle with a 2,000 year old beef with a hotheaded demon, a heavenly Muse and two unlikely Prophets known as Jay and Silent Bob (who is also the director) , as they each discover the power of their own individual faith. In the end, it is discovered that God is a compassionate soul who forgives the fallen angels for all their mistakes, and allows them to come back to Heaven. So even in a comedy which can be considered blasphemous by a conservative religious viewer, the final analysis finds that compassion is still a quality associated with an enlightened being, and that both the cynical and naïve can find peace through the example of showing compassion.
Even in such a movie as Turtles Can Fly, where you would think there is no compassion in a time of war, there is a child in the mix that shows such compassion for the other children that is just so surreal in such turbulent and violent times. Turtles Can Fly takes place in the days leading up to America's second war against the Middle-Eastern country of Iraq, in a small village and refugee camp on the border of Iraq and Turkey. Soran Ebrahim stars as Satellite, a boy nicknamed for his fascination with technology. Satellite is also obsessed with the United States, and is prone to sprinkle bits of English throughout his speech. His strong personality and his resourcefulness have elevated him to the status of serving as a kind of leader among the younger children in the village. He even convinces the village elders to trade in their radios, and purchase a satellite dish so they can watch news broadcasts on the upcoming war. Tension mounts as the village waits to hear when the U.S. military will invade. For his part, Satellite finds himself smitten with an orphan girl, Agrin, who wanders into the refugee camp with her armless older brother, Henkov, and accompanied by a little boy who is nearly blind. Henkov struggles to earn a meager living clearing dangerously fester minefields, like Satellite so Satellite sees him, at first, as a rival competing for the meager sum to be gotten from such livelihood. However, his earnest desire to help Agrin eventually extends to her family. Satellite and his friends find moments of joy amid the chaos and destruction, but Agrin seems haunted by past events too painful to reconcile, and her brother Henkov derives no pleasure from his seeming ability to predict the future. He is still driven by a need to survive, and by his sense of responsibility toward Agrin and the little blind boy who travels with them. However, Agrin is too traumatized to adjust, and the blind toddler becomes the focal point of her feelings of degradation. However, while watching this film it is the audience that feels the compassion for this, all the village children, especially the young girl Agrin and all she has had to endure. The tragedies in her life, and that of all those around her, posed an insurmountable burden that consumed her, to the point those things finally got so bad, she ended her life in order to escape them.

The book The Time Has Come written by Barbara Oleynick has many examples of caring and compassionate people throughout the book . It starts with two extremely compassionate souls named Albert and Henna. Albert is a security officer with several children and grandchildren of his own, who becomes guided by a light on his way to work one day, and he does so because he feels his faith telling him to. The light leads him to an abandoned baby which he names Grace. He explains that in taking her home he acted from his heart, and not with his mind. Henna, his wife and the love of his life, wonders who possibly could leave a baby like that, and shows concern that it must have been under extreme circumstance in which a mother could do such a thing. As it happens, a few years later they meet Grace’s biological mother Rachael, and hear of all she has had to endure and, with the same compassion shown earlier, they welcome her into their home.
Rachel had raised her sister Stephi, as opposed to her mother Ellie, who was unable to, due to her drug addiction. Rachael is heart broken when her mother accidentally kills Stephi. Rachael knows that she must forgive her, or she will also continue to suffer, so she tells her mother “I forgave you a long time ago. I had to. Not forgiving took up too much space in my heart and made me really sad” (The Time Has Come pg155). Rachael’s new family does everything in their power to be sure that Ellie spends her last days in a loving family environment when the Correction’s Officer tells Henna that Ellie has AIDS and will not live much longer as she has refused treatment. Ellie feel she does not deserve to live after what she has done to her own daughter.
In closing, I would like to use a quote by none other than Albert Einstein on Compassion. "A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." (www.goodreads.com)
Just think what a better world this would be if everyone could open their eyes and their hearts to those around us in need. We might even be able to live in a world free of hatred and war, but for now, we can only imagine.

Works Cited
Bible.com - The Bible Online, Bible Prayer Room, Christian Community, Market Place and More.. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.bible.com/>.
Christian Bible Reference Site. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.twopaths.com/>.
"Compassion | Define Compassion at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compassion>.
D O G M A. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://dogma-movie.com/>.
Dictionary.com. Lexico LLC. Print.
Oleynick, Barbara. The Time Has Come. Austin, TX: Synergy, 2005. Print.
"Search Results for "compassion" (showing 1-20 of 945 Books)." Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.goodreads.com/search?q=compassion>.
"Turtles Can Fly (2004)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424227/combined>.