Readings: Genesis 18:1-15; Responsorial: Luke 1; Matthew 8:5-17
The first reading of today narrates the story of the kindness of Abraham and Sarah to three divine visitors.
Kindness is also evident in the way God treated Abraham and Sarah. Abraham laughed when God renewed this promise some months ago before this particular encounter. Today, Sarah also laughed at God’s promise. One would expect that God would revoke His promise but He didn’t. This is evidence of God’s kindness. He does not treat us as we deserve.
In the Gospel, we have the story of a kind centurion who came to beg Jesus on behalf of his servant. The Roman law allows a slave owner to treat slaves like properties and even kill a slave who is ill and unable to function. This centurion loves His servant and he is kind to him (the servant). He treats the servant as a human being with emotion, a story, a purpose, a human being deserving of love, respect and compassion.
Jesus shows kindness to this centurion by saying “I will come myself and cure him.” He didn’t judge the centurion as an enemy but as a person in great need.
The episode gradually shifted from a display of kindness to a demonstration of great faith. An uncommon faith that astonished even Jesus.
Today, let us just meditate on the virtue of kindness.
Our world is full of people who are unkind, cruel, brutal, heartless, gloomy and mean. People who lack compassion and treat others with disdain, people who laugh at others, judge and mock others in distress, people who refuse to lend a helping help and withdraw a friendly smile from others.
Let us ask ourselves “How kind are we to others, to strangers, to people who are different from us, to members of our family, to people who serve us, to people who attend to us, to people we meet every day, to people we work with, to people we live with, to people who are below us in rank and status?
Do we treat people with respect, compassion, consideration and friendliness? An unkind person cannot claim to be spiritual because spirituality is built on the foundation of good character and basic human virtues.
I end this reflection with a quote that I saw somewhere; it reads thus “If you are going to be anything in the world, be kind.”
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on June 26. 2021