One of the qualities of Jesus that stands out is his great kindness towards people. Whether he was healing someone or feeding people or listening to someone or teaching them, he did it all with great kindness.
The kindness of Jesus to live and die for us, to open the gates of heaven, to invite us to enjoy the blessings of the Holy Spirit in our life—all speak to us of his great love and kindness—his kindness to friends, to strangers, even to enemies—his great kindness to all.
St. Paul offers advice to the Corinthians, who had been quarreling among themselves, and the animosity had even extended to their celebration of the Eucharist. Paul told them that this was no good. You can’t worship and fight each other, even if they are your enemies. Remember Jesus. He was kind. You must do the same, especially when you come to pray together. So, get over your anger. We must exend kindness even to our enemies, as far as this is possible.
In the gospel we have a prime example of Jesus’ kindness to strangers in the feeding of the 5000. It was the end of the day, and Jesus and the disciples must have been tired and hungry, anxious to send the crowd away so they could put up their feet and relax. Instead, they performed a great act of kindness and fed the crowd from the little food they had. Kindness towards friends, enemies, and strangers–all a part of our call as Christians.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
The images in this post come from Philadelphia.
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