Abraham and his family entertain the three strangers, unaware they are messengers from God. The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
by Lawrence G. Lovasik (Sophia Institute Press, Kindle edition $US9.99)
Here is another book for these lockdown days. The author sets out to provide a practical handbook for those who wish to make kindness a feature of their lives.
Everyone needs kindness – to receive it and to convey it. Few will deny that there is a great need for it at present, as people worldwide are living in a bewildering period of uncertainty and foreboding. Lovasik analyses kindness as it is exhibited by attitude, by words or by actions.
An attitude of kindness the author describes as obligingness. This urges one to carry out a wish or satisfy a need before a request is made. It is the ready fulfilment of an unspoken request. No such action stops with itself. It is like the ripple caused by a stone cast into a pond.
The author illustrates how cheerfulness, or affability as St Thomas Aquinas described it, enhances such an attitude. Courtesy is an integral part of the kindly attitude which is about respect for others. St Paul described courtesy as: ‘Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honour’.
This is a most relevant read for our times, pointing to a way of life as radical as Christ intended it to be”
It is obeying the Golden Rule and doing for others what you would have others do for you. John Henry Newman in a well-known passage draws a vivid picture of what courtesy is by listing what it is not. Kind words are those which affirm and encourage people and build up their self-confidence. Calumny, backbiting, detraction, belittling people and destructive criticism have the opposite effect and can have devasting effects.
Evidence
Moreover, there is much evidence that this kind of behaviour on social media can have tragic consequences. In discussing humour in one’s speech the author issues some salutary cautions.
He decries the use of biting sarcasm and jokes which ridicule or scoff at other people. For him the best humour is that which is directed at oneself, one’s own inadequacies, inconsistencies and failures.
Before signing off on kind words, he illustrated their value with a number of examples, one of which features Benjamin Franklin. It seems he tended to be tactless in his youth but he became so diplomatic at handling people that he was made ambassador to France. The secret to his success was his policy: “I will speak ill of no man, speak all the good I know of everybody.” Surely a noble ideal for everyone!
In discussing kind actions one takes for granted: parental love, fraternal love, conjugal love and patriotism. But here one is also in the realm of compassion, mercy, forgiveness and tenderness. For the Christian the love of neighbour requires a concern for his or her well-being and happiness.
One can make the world a happier place…”
What this involves has been spelled out in the corporal works: ‘to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick and to bury the dead’.
This is a most relevant read for our times, pointing to a way of life as radical as Christ intended it to be. It shows that there is nothing complicated about changing one’s daily actions to be kinder, it just takes greater attention to the way one does them. By being kind, one has the power to make the world a happier place in which to live and at the very least it can also diminish the amount of unhappiness in it. For those seeking spiritual reading at this time they will find this book to be an inspiration and it will dare them to transform the world with kindness.