Father Greg Boyle writes, "If we long to be in the world who God is, then, somehow, our compassion has to find its way to vastness." He goes on to quote Wendell Berry, "You have to be able to imagine lives that are not yours." And then he continues, "Compassion isn't just about feeling the pain of others; it's about bringing them in toward yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased. 'Being compassionate as God is compassionate,' means the dismantling of barriers that exclude. In Scripture, Jesus is in a house so packed that no one can come through the door anymore. So the people open the roof and lower this paralytic down through it, so Jesus can heal him. The focus of the story is, understandably, the healing of the paralytic. But there is something more significant than that happening here. They're ripping the roof off the place, and those outside are being let in."
~ Father Greg Boyle in the book Tattoos on the Heart pp. 66,74,75
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