'Let Ourselves Be Touched By Others’ Pain'

 NY Times: Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts - To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain. By Pope Francis - Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and the bishop of Rome.

If we are to come out of this crisis less selfish than when we went in, we have to let ourselves be touched by others’ pain. There’s a line in Friedrich Hölderlin’s “Hyperion” that speaks to me, about how the danger that threatens in a crisis is never total; there’s always a way out: “Where the danger is, also grows the saving power.” That’s the genius in the human story: There’s always a way to escape destruction. Where humankind has to act is precisely there, in the threat itself; that’s where the door opens.