Advent Attitude 5: Kindness
Most TV shows in recent years portray middle-aged married couples as curmudgeonly and sarcastic toward one another. Everybody Loves Raymond is a good example. Ray’s parents, played by Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, were forever trading caustic barbs with one another. However, one classic TV show, All in the Family, offered a very different take. Although Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O’Connor) was always quick to put everyone down, including his wife Edith (played by Jean Stapleton), it seems that Edith never stooped to his level. Instead, she always returned his grumpiness with graciousness and kindness.
This brings us to our fifth Advent Attitude, which is kindness. Adopting an attitude of kindness does not suggest that we turn a blind eye to the less-than-charitable behavior of others. It does suggest, however, that we not allow others’ lack of charity to affect our disposition. Kindness, unfortunately, has come to be seen as a form of passivity, much the way we interpret the word benign, the opposite of malignant. While malignancy is something that actively destroys, we tend to think of something benign as being neutral. In truth, the opposite of something malignant is something whose purpose is to actively do good. The true meaning of the word benign is the characteristic of actively doing good (the biblical understanding of
kindness), not just being neutral.
Kindness is shown through actions. When we refer to someone as being kind, it is usually in response to a gesture or action of goodness that was unmerited by the recipient. Perhaps the greatest act of kindness, then, was the action of God sending us his only Son. As a result of the Incarnation, Christians are called to show kindness—to perform acts that are intrinsically good even, and especially, when those acts are unmerited and go unreciprocated. It is this unlimited generosity and kindness that speaks to us of the presence of God, whom the Church teaches is “absolute benignity.” In other words, it is God’s very nature to heap blessings on his children—a characteristic that is shown time and again throughout Scripture, culminating in the sending of
his only Son, Jesus. Under the influence of Jesus, we are compelled to do the same for others, actively and generously spreading kindness—benignity—rather than malignancy.
—Joe Paprocki, based on Under the Influence of Jesus
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