Empathy

I'm being over-emotional again, but I had a tough day yesterday. My day was nothing compared to a good friend's. An old friend and co-worker met me as I was walking up the ramp to work. Her husband has experienced some trauma at his job, and he has some anxiety about keeping it. His trauma triggered severe anxiety attacks in her for which she has recently been hospitalized for several days. She expresses herself honestly, and appears so sweet and vulnerable that it was instinctive for me to give her a hug.
But as I told my mother about it, her first reaction was to tell me that there's nothing I can do. She is right, I cannot cure my friend of her anxiety, but that doesn't mean I should try to stop myself from feeling the pain of her experiences.
When we let ourselves love someone so much that we feel what they feel we do a little of what Jesus did, and we carry each-other's burdens. I don't think that my empathy helps her at all. I can't imagine that she feels any better, knowing that I am with her in spirit as she struggles, but I know that I must care, or become someone other than who I am.
I don't have the emotional capacity to bear the pain of everyone I meet. I think that would take Godhood. But I know that loving people makes me more able to love, and maybe someday I'll actually be of some use.