Fruit of the Spirit – Day 20

Kindness and goodness are both hard to come by in today’s society. Often, people are nice, but kindness is not necessarily the same as being nice; one can be kind and not nice. If you look up “nice” in the dictionary, you will see words like please, enjoyable or attractive. In contrast, kindness is doing something good and not expecting anything in return. Kindness is respect and helping others without waiting for someone to help one back.

We are to show this kindness to others, because it is exactly the kindness that God showed us. In kindness, he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. Romans tells us that God’s kindness is meant to cause us to change. Some translations use the word goodness here. God shows us kindness when we have done nothing to merit it. We cannot justify ourselves before a holy God, not with our penance, or our performance, or our sacrifice. When we are confronted with God’s amazing grace and fully realise that we are recipients of the most undeserved mercy, we are humbled. In addition, when we truly understand how the God who made the world gives every good gift to us, we try to live a life that is pleasing to him and try to reflect his kindness to those around us.