'One hot afternoon the fire siren rang and Quinn went with the firemen to the top of a steep hill where a car was burning; the flames were completely out of control, and inside the inferno was an entire family, a mother, father, and four children.
At his seminary, Quinn had been taught that God, being perfect, is impassible and cannot suffer. That evening he stormed, "If God didn't care, then I don't want him,"
I cried out, "Of course he cared! He was there in that burning car. If he wasn't, then he isn't God."
General compassion is useless. An aloof, general god is useless. Unless we, too, are in that burning car, we are useless.
It is still taught in some seminaries that it is a heresy to think that God can suffer with us. But what does the incarnation show us but the ultimate act of particularity? This is what compassion is all about.'
Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet, p.193.
