A Fruit In SeasonSample

Kindness

An Internet search for “random acts of kindness” came up with these:
1. Give up your seat for a pregnant or elderly person.
2. Don’t interrupt when someone is explaining himself.
3. After a picnic, throw away your own trash--and someone else’s.
4. Put your shopping cart back in its place.

Hmm. Sounds like Mom’s 101 speech about being polite as opposed to acting like we were born in a barn. When did common courtesy get upgraded to acts of kindness? Maybe it’s just a sad sign of how disconnected our society has become. We need a list to remind us to look up and notice another’s needs.

If we truly want to understand this fruit of the Spirit, we need to look to God’s kindness for parameters. Actually, according to St. Paul, we need to look to someone born in a barn: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4,5).

If God’s kindness toward us had a name, it would be Jesus. His kindness was no random act. It was carefully planned before we were born, from the creation of the world. God’s kindness was embodied in his Son, enacted on the cross, poured out on us in Baptism. We, who are experts at random malice and envy and hate, are nevertheless wrapped in God’s loving kindness... and it transforms us.

You are the object of God’s kindness. Pass it on.