Our empathetic reaction to another is a healthy human reflex causing a momentary disruption of our everyday thoughts.
Encountering a person whose situation impels us to help, the boundary that normally separates us from the surrounding world is momentarily redrawn to include the person encountered. When we are filled with the impulse to respond to the needs of another, our normal internal thought pattern is interrupted since in order to help effectively we must focus on exactly what the other person needs. Our reaction might involve reading facial cues and body language, and listening closely to what is expressed, all forcing us to focus on the external world far more intensely than we otherwise would.
Empathy differs from the experience of moral beauty in that when we witness moral beauty we are watching someone responding to us or to another person with great kindness or courage. When we experience empathy, we are the ones responding to the need of others.