love is kind

First Corinthians 13, in the English service we are talking about issues of identity like the Lion of Judah in this time of a new beginning, and we were talking a few weeks ago about the call to be radical and committed to the Kingdom of God, to be radical and We talked in Romans 12 about offering the body as a living sacrifice, and it led us directly in that same chapter to talk about love, about what it is to love one another.

Another theme of our identity as a Church is to be a Church with a supernatural mentality, to see the spiritual world behind the natural and also to know that there is a spiritual warfare around us, that there are gifts of the Holy Spirit that God wants to use. And we are going to study the Book of First Corinthians, and there in the middle of First Corinthians we find chapter 13, which says that: "If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but I do not have love, I become like resounding metal and If I had prophecy, I understood all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I had all faith, in such a way that I moved mountains and had no love, I am nothing, if I distributed all my goods to feed the poor, and if give my body to be burned and I have no love, it is of no use to me."

So there we see that an anointed community is a loving community, that a radical community is a community that stands out for its love, the quality of its love. So let's take time to meditate, what does love mean, what does it mean to live this as God commands?

So let's talk about the second sentence of verse 4 because I already talked about the first one, I spoke in English two weeks ago about patience, that love is long-suffering, right? patience. We discussed that in the Greek the word for patience is a very special word. How many want to learn Greek today? you can lie: yes, I want to learn Greek. Makrosumeo in Greek for patience right? makro what do you think makro means? big long. Sumeo in the Greek means sea and also anger but not only anger but rage, so long for the anger. A long burn, a long fuse, right?

In English the saying: a long fuse, how is your fuse? short, long? we'll see. The Spanish word that is translated here is also excellent: love is suffered because it suffers a lot, endures a lot, tolerates a lot. Patience is giving people a second chance, give people a second chance and a third, and a fourth, and etc., etc.

Instead of being quick to say: remove his head, off with his head, I preached about that a few years ago, about not; Let's be generous and patient with others, amen? Always with the word patience comes another word and this is like four or five times in the New Testament, it is a pair of words that go together. Love is long-suffering, patient and then in verse 4, love is benign and there we are for today, love is benign; love is kind.

Father: I ask you in the Name of Jesus that it be not my words but Yours today, that it be the Voice of the good Shepherd speaking to us, that it unleash life among us through what we are going to speak in Jesus Name , amen.

Benign, benign. It is a word that is used a lot, isn't it? How many today say: oh I feel very benign today? oh yeah, benignity, that's something we say on the street, right? Knows? It's a very Sunday word, very Sunday, isn't it? and quite hazy. What is a person who has kindness? benign.

We use another word in Spanish, kindhearted, she is a kind person. Do you use this too? it is somewhat nebulous. I tried in discipleship to define kindness, benignity and I put something that I think has made life even more complicated for us, I put: good vibes (laughs), right? good vibes. That's nice but what is that, what is good vibes, what is benignity? and you know? It is ironic because benignity although for many of us it is something nebulous, to be kind, to be good people, to be cool, how nice! but what is that? the word in the Bible here is something very concrete, very concrete.

Benignity or goodness as it is here is love expressed in concrete actions, it is the love that is seen, that is done, that is demonstrated, that makes everyone see that there is concrete love here. I'm going to talk, sometimes it's easier to describe it than to define it. Kindness is opening the door for a person you don't know who is coming up behind you, kindness is letting a car in on Route 93 when you're entering the ramp and there's a lot of traffic, letting it in.

Kindness is remembering a person's name. Kindness is if you are a student, if you are a student, it means you go to the table where a kid is sitting that no one wants to sit with and you sit down, and you make friends with that kid, that's kindness, that's kindness. Kindness is living in action what love is in small ways and big ways, shoveling snow from your neighbor's car when your back is already dead and there it is, and you fight with him or her.

They can be big things, it's donating a kidney to someone who needs it. That's kindness isn't it? there are people who do. Going to another country and building a hospital in the Honduran jungle because there isn't one there, that's benign, right? there are some who are thinking of doing that. Something big and dangerous, if you are a student at school. If you see that there is a student who is being mistreated and you go in and defend him. You are a high school student and you decide: I'm not gonna just stand by while I see someone get bullied, I'm gonna get involved. I'm gonna tell someone, I'm gonna tell the teacher, I'm gonna talk to somebody even if it means that you are branded as being I don't know what, even if you are branded.

Kindness takes courage, kindness is concrete, it is something solid. Listening to a person as if what this person had to tell you is the most important thing in the world and really feeling it: I am going to listen to this person, I am not going to be thinking anymore, no; this person. Maybe something like: if you're a husband, wash the dishes when it's not your turn. Perhaps it is, here in the Church if you see a person sitting there you introduce yourself and make a new friend, and the person says: I have been here for ten years, why don't you know me? well hey, you're being nice breaking the ice with someone.

Maybe give your seat on the bus, pick up a friend at the airport, help move someone who is moving, maybe if you are a wife give a good backup to the husband when he needs it, amen? Bringing coffee to the person you work with even though they don't pay you but only, you're in a restaurant and you leave yourself a big tip, right? Or if you see that someone treated you well in a business, you go online and write a very positive review, right? or you talk to the boss of the person and say: look what he did, this waiter was very good.

So, do concrete and positive things that express love. Now I want to be very careful that we don't confuse benignity with being very nice, right? I don't even know how to translate it into Spanish; to be good people, right? nice guy, no more Mister Nice Guy. God does not call us to be nice, he calls us to be loving in Christ, which is the difference, and we are talking about waiters and waitresses, I don't know if there are any here; I worked on this for many years, I didn't do very well and for this I had to be a Pastor, but (laughs).

But the waiter has to be nice to you because he works with tips, right? The person who is selling a car to you is very nice to you. Many people are kind to others to like them, to win friendship, what do I know. This is being nice, being benign, expressing love, it has nothing to do with me but with you, right? Being nice is thinking about what you get, being kind, you are thinking about what you give; It's a completely different mentality.

Philippians chapter 2, Philippians 2, there we see the attitude that is behind goodness, kindness. Philippians 2 verse 3, Philippians 2:3 says: "Do nothing out of contention or vainglory, but rather with humility, esteeming each other as superior to oneself." That when you approach a person you see that person as someone extremely important. This person is like the President, like the Governor, like the king of I don't know what, like my soccer player; is important in front of me and deserves to be treated with respect, not necessarily because he is a good person but because he is a human being, made in the image of God knowing that this person is invested with an inherent dignity of being a human being that God granted him. He was made in His image and deserves to be treated well.

That's why it says in the next verse here: "Not looking each one for his own but each one also for the others." If you are an important person then I am going to open the door for you, I am going to think of you, I am going to help you, I am going to remember your name, I am going to listen to what you have to say because you are important. Respect, courage shown in acts of kindness, this is what we are talking about.

Jesus lived this, one of my favorite Jesus stories. I know we're supposed to like all the Jesus stories right? so they are all good but there is one that I really like, that I think about a lot, which is when Jesus is talking to His disciples and a noise is heard in the street from a person who is begging, a blind person and he is there crying: Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me! do you remember the story?

What do the disciples do? they shut him up Shut up, shut up, don't bother, right? How many times do we do this right? shut up, we are in the Church, shut up, Jesus is here. Jesus walking stops and then says: call him, I want to meet him and then they call the man, his name is Bartimaeus. They call him in front of Jesus and I can visualize Jesus making eye contact and saying: How can I help you, what do you want me to do for you? It is the question of someone who wants to serve another person.

Do you know that many times we want to help people in our own way? Oh, the poor things need me to help them, so I'm here, you down there, I'm going to help you, poor thing. Jesus was not like that, Jesus was Lord: tell me, what do you want me to help you with? it gave him the opportunity to say what he needs instead of telling him what he needs, do you understand?

And the man says: Lord, I want to see, he had a voice, right? and Jesus says, he doesn't say: oh well I help you, be healed, what do you do? He heals him and says: Your faith has made you well. This is kindness, it is seeing the person.

Do you know the meaning of the name Bartimaeus, does anyone know the meaning? In Hebrew it is a very interesting word, it means pair, which is a son, and Timaeus, which comes from the word: for honor, Bartimaeus means: son of honor. When you come across someone on the street, you realize that he is a son of honor, worthy of honor and respect, and attention, and kindness, and kindness. Jesus saw people like this.

Jesus was extremely kind, wasn't he? always healing people. Not only did he heal the leper from afar, but what did he do with the leper? I touch it. Kind, love that touches the person.

Jesus was always feeding, right? I know that there are many people in our Church that this is a language of love, cooking for the people, well, Jesus was like that, right? that is something old. Jesus always multiplying the fish and loaves for the people.

Jesus, when He raised up a girl who was dead, the twelve-year-old girl, what is the first thing He says? give her something to eat, the girl is dead for a while, she must be hungry. How interesting isn't it?

After rising from the dead, Jesus, the King of kings, Lord of lords, already incapable of being killed, ready to conquer the world, appears to the disciples on the seashore, Peter comes swimming, and what does Jesus do at this moment? , as if I had nothing else to do? you cook breakfast, right? some fish. Jesus was kind. He washed the disciples' feet. He served His disciples.

Do you know what I was remembering this morning? When I was new here the Pastor cooked me biscuits, it was the strangest thing, Pastor Roberto Miranda cooking me biscuits, they were really good! they were good, they were excellent, he has a gift, it's a hobby. Benefits for one's disciples.

Jesus died for us, what's kinder than this, right? it is much more than being nice, it is being sacrificed for the good of the other person; Jesus was like that. The word kindness is closely associated with the concept of mercy. Do you see that being nice, one is kind to people who deserve your kindness? but to be benign is to be merciful, it is to express love also for the person who does not deserve it. God is like that right?

The Word says that He makes the sun shine on the good and the bad alike. Know what? there are some people who do not deserve a sunny day, it's true, there are bad people in the world, there's some bad people who do not deserve a sunny day, yeah but God makes the sun shine on them too, right? kind. He says that for this reason we must be benign, kind, even good with our enemies.

When did Jesus die for you, when you were ready to repent? no no. Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates His love in this: that while we were sinners Christ died for us." He died for you when you were the baddest you could be, the most rebellious; that is kind, benign, love to the person who does not deserve it.

This is a subject not only of Jesus but He took it from the Old Testament. Did you know? this is a subject that is in the Heart of God from the beginning. In Exodus 23 it says that: "If you find your enemy's ox or donkey lost, return and take it away. If you see the donkey of the one who hates you fallen under its load, will you leave it without help? Rather help it to lift it up." What do you do when? think of an enemy, an enemy, don't look to the side (laughs).

A mortal enemy who hates me and I hate him, an enemy. Think of an enemy. Now: if you see that he has a problem and the tire is flat on the street, what is the thought that comes? well, he deserves it. Did you know? I shared this morning a personal confession, a confession. Me driving someone cut me very bad, very fast and then an undercover police car turned on the lights and found it, caught it. What a thought, God of justice, so be all your enemies (laughs).

What does the Word of God say? It's up to the policeman to do it, not to you, that is. Being loving with the person who does not deserve it, that is kindness, that is kindness. The Word says in Romans 12: "So if your enemy is hungry, feed him" and that it is not something poisoned, right?

He shared another testimony today. Me working as a waiter this time years ago there were some very spoiled customers, right? very demanding and there was one who complained that the rolls, the bread was not hot so the waitress takes it to the kitchen, she cooks it in the microwave well, very hot, she takes it and there the poor thing burns his tongue and the waitress there you can't smile but inside it was the peak of your day, right? If you are going to feed it, it should not be food to burn the tongue, but rather it should be well cooked, right?

It says: "Do not be defeated by evil but overcome evil with good." Now there are some who say: Gregory this is good for you in the world I don't know where but I live on the street, I live in the real world. If I am friendly with bad people they will eat me alive. There's some that say: that's very nice but you don't know my neighbourhood. If I'm nice to the guys you are talking about it's not gonna, gotta be tough. But you know what? the Word of God is the Word of God.

Weak people are not kind because people who are fighting are fighting because there is fear, there is insecurity, but people who can be generous and kind are trusting people. I know who I believe in, I know that God is with me and that is why I have the luxury of being generous even with people who do not deserve it. And the Word says that the benignity of God guides us to repentance, speaks to the heart and wins it.

There are some families that have suffered from lack of kindness for so long and the husband after hearing this sermon or the wife, or the children, or the roommates will come back home and I hope they will do acts of kindness, and you know that? maybe it will be difficult at first. Why what happened? Yes, the brother is good, we are more interested in the game than, you know, the dishes and the garbage, one day the wife comes home, finds the dishes washed, the floor swept, everything in order, a nice dinner set, what? will she think? OK what do you want? or worse what did you do? it must have been really bad, you cooked for me.

There will be suspicion at first, which we especially do, excuse me men, I am going to be very hard with you but we are very impatient, we begin to do something kind, an act of benignity and it is not received well, and we say: look, it was not worth it. pity, I did something benign and he did not receive it. Well, maybe it's going to take time to gain trust again, don't give up. There are many reasons why we are not benign, right?

In the parable of the good Samaritan we know that the needy man was there and two religious passed by, and did not stop to help the person. I think that many times we are afraid that if I get involved, I get involved, maybe it will get complicated and they will hurt me, and there are countless excuses that we make; That is the moment when we have to do something the most, right? just do something, get in, God is going to bless, God is with me. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added to me." He is with me if I'm trying to do something and you think: well but how am I going to live if I'm always stopping to help people?

I like that the good samaritan did something daring, he went the extra mile right? he spent the night helping this person, he got his hands dirty right? helping, blood and all, danger from other thieves. He was daring, that's why I say that kind people are not just nice, they are valuable people, brave people, ready to take risks. But if one finds out the next day, what does the Good Samaritan do? he pays the innkeeper, innkeeper, the inkeeper, he says: take care of me, and then what did the good samaritan do? he went to finish his business because if he quits his job he won't have anything to help the next person on the street.

Being benign is not being crazy, well it is being crazy because you have to do crazy things many times, but it is also being wise knowing that: well I am also going to be prudent but daring at the same time. Do not make excuses to do it and thus be a benign person no matter the cost, and trust that the one who gives will have more, the one who endures will lose the little he has, amen?

Some think: if I am a benign person they are going to abuse me, or worse, some think that to be kind you have to let them abuse you, right? some think so. But how is this to be kind? help an abusive person to remain abusive? but this is not kind to either the abused or the abuser. Sometimes we have to put tough love right? a firm love Sometimes it's not letting yourself be abused but loving a person who doesn't deserve it.

So another thing, that I think that many times we are not kind because we are already used to people around us, we go through the same needs every day and we have already lost sensitivity, right? we are hardened, nor do you see the need. Or it can be with people that you always see, right? They are people who are there at home, at work and you stop seeing them as important people because you are familiar with them but those are the people who need regular acts of kindness the most, okay?

I want to talk about that, that for groups, goodness, kindness is something that functional and healthy groups do, that is: a family, a Church, a workplace or an entire society that needs goodness in it, if not , it's melting. I made a comparison when I preached on patience a few weeks ago. I compared groups to car engines, ok?

I am not very expert in car engines so you will forgive me. After my first sermon, brother Mario spent a lot of time with me trying to explain to me how an engine works, I think it didn't work but I say the same nonsense as before. But I know that in cars there is something called the shock absorbers, right? dampers, I used my dictionary, dampers.

Patience is the shock absorber, it is the shock absorber of the car when it goes through the potholes and holes in the streets of Boston, it is these absorbers, these shock absorbers that help you not to die in the car, they soften the blow. Also when a car is making curves, if a suspension system did not exist, they call it, the car will go around; there has to be some flexibility. Patience is this. If there is no patience we all stay in the holes in the streets.

Well, if patience is the damper then kindness is the engine oil. What works in an engine without oil, right? iron with iron and it melts, metal with metal and it melts, what is needed is lubrication so that the parts that are always touching do not touch directly if there is no oil in between to soften its operation so that it works well, that's right kindness in human relationships.

It is that in any group there is contact between the people in the group and when there is contact, something is raised or something is caused which is called friction, friction. It heats up, there are problems. Iron with iron makes sparks, right? Sparks and not good sparks, this is bad. In the Church, if you are part of a group, you are going to experience friction. If you have not experienced friction with anyone from this Church, it must be your first visit to this Church and even on your first visit, it is very likely that someone will bother you because a group of human beings bother each other, we touch each other.

If there is no kindness, if there is no kindness to soften the connections, then the engine burns out and it doesn't work, it doesn't go anywhere. Kindness is not optional. In a Church, if there is no kindness, everything is blocked.

I don't know if you've had that experience, you put oil in the car and it's very clear at first, right? but then you go and drive for a while, and you see again that the oil is already dark, right? it's supposed to get dirty, the oil is supposed to get dirty because it captures the imperfections of the engine and if it doesn't work like that in fact, a sludge builds up in the engine to make it not run well.

In English we would say it like this: the oil accumulates the imperfections in the engine to prevent the accumulation, and the technical word is: sludge, sludge, a car mud, an ugly sediment, something that prevents it from moving well and sludge has a way of gunking up an engine, right? If the oil is not changed much, that ugly and disgusting thing accumulates that prevents the engine from working.

It's like that in groups too. If there is no regular kindness in a family, in a workplace, in a Church, a good emotional mud forms, a good mud, a good sediment that prevents us from functioning as it is supposed to. It has to be regular and constant for there to be that freedom.

I'm going to change the analogy. Let's forget about cars, well done because I killed this illustration for sure. Let's talk about another illustration, another comparison. There is a writer that I really like called Steve Kubby, he wrote many books, he talks about what he calls the Love Bank, a love bank, let's say that it is inside each person and every time you do an act of kindness for someone you leave a coin in this person's love bank, ka-chin! and there you are entering deposits, deposits.

I don't know if you've had this experience. A good friend that you trust a lot, there is a lot of money in the bank between the two of you and then you don't see each other for a few years, you go to other places and then you see each other again and how nice! one starts as if nothing, you pick up right where you left off; there is a lot of trust, everything is very natural as if there was no time in between. How nice when this happens! No?

Because it's very nice, when you don't see each other, your account is left, the amount as it was but it's different with the people you see every day. If you see a person every day and they spend a day without putting in a coin, they take out a coin, so every day where there are no deposits there are withdraws, automatic withdrawals. How many like automatic withdrawals that take money out of you? Well, that's how it works in the heart. If it is not entered, it is removed, so spend the days in a family, in a home or in a workplace without putting anything in. Over time the bank empties and there comes a time when the bank is bankrupt, and the checks are already bouncing, right?

You are starting to bounce checks and things get kinda ugly but we have to start building up the accumulation again. And it takes work. Kindness is work, you have to make an effort, you have to make it a lifestyle; and sometimes it's complicated because sometimes you're going to do things that the person is going to like very much and you're going to know: wow, that was a big deposit, other times you're going to try and the person is going to look at you like you're crazy No? sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I want to share a testimony of a member of this Church who a few months ago left with the Lord and was a very special person, she was an example of kindness and goodness to me, one of the best I have ever met and you can put the photo. She was receiving treatment for cancer so she lost her hair, you go to see the photo and it turns out that she was a person who lived on the street, she did not have a home, she had very serious mental health problems but thank God she received kindness from people of this Church.

There is a family that I didn't even know that received her at home for a few days when she was out on the street, they received her at home. There is another sister who dedicated almost every day to making friends with Jannet and came to her senses in her last years, months of life and we already saw that within this mental illness there was one of the most beautiful people I have met in many years. Kindness to her was like breathing.

She was always knitting cloaks and mittens and things for the people, and she heard on television, on the hurricane news, a tornado that hit a school in one of the Midwest states, and in that school there was a teacher who covered your kids from school do you remember the story? and things fell from the school and hit her, it left her well, badly hurt but she saved the lives of the children. Jannet felt so touched by this testimony that she took the initiative to knit a beautiful cloak for her, that cloak that she is wearing and she sent it to this teacher, and wrote a beautiful note that says: may the Lord God cover you to you as you covered those children. Wow, what things.

Who thinks of that, who takes the time to do that? a beautiful soul, a beautiful soul that is shining in the heavens right now, I know. She once did an act of kindness for my family, many, in fact one of those acts of kindness was a prophecy, she prophesied to me and they were words of encouragement because the same heart prompted not only to knit but also to give words.

But one day she knew that my son was going to start first grade and he was a little scared to change schools and go with all the big kids, so she decided to knit him a nice outfit for that first day of school, a very special act of kindness that she did to my son (laughs). We decided that maybe it wasn't the kindest thing to send him to school in his new suit. He put him to bed that night and he slept like a cuddly toy in that thing, so my poor son.

Ok this is my point with this. In kindness, in kindness we have a job and that's where you have to make an effort, you have to struggle a little thinking, what does this person need? We want to love people in our own way, right? and you have to receive my love because it is sincere, ok that's fine but we must think, what does this person really need, what does he like and what is going to bless this person? and have intelligence and wisdom.

There is an excellent book that we talked about with a group of couples recently called: The Five Love Languages, everyone should read this book. This book The five love languages, the theme of that book is that there are many ways to express and receive love and we are all different, right?

For some, if someone gives you a gift you feel loved, it's an act of kindness that you feel: wow, I was thinking of me. For others, a gift: well, how nice, but it's not a big deal, but if you take time to be with me and accompany me to something, I feel that you value me, right? For some they are words of affirmation, beautiful words, for some touch. For some acts of service there are some sisters who say: my love thanks for the chocolates and the poem but wow, if you were to take out the trash I would feel so loved.

Now sister, be thankful for the chocolates and the words because he is trying ok? but sometimes it is what he or she needs that we have to do and we have to find a way and it will not always be easy. Maybe that person needs nice words and you are a man of few words; Well, you're going to have to find a book by Pablo Neruda and copy a few poems and see if it works, right? treat.

Some need hugs but they are with someone who looks, I don't want him to touch me, I don't want to have to get through that because kindness is not for me, it's for him or her, right? express love as this person needs to receive it. In a diverse Church, I spoke about this especially with the service in English because, you know, if we think that we are a diverse Church in Spanish, forget it, in English it's a total mess, right? There are people from different continents and you are easily offended, right? what a person does that in your culture is normal in another culture is scandalous, right?

For example, I was speaking this morning, in California, in Los Angeles, that there are Pastors who preach in Hawaiian shirts and sandals, and everything is normal; How nice, we must have a Hawaiian day here right? it would be a lot of fun. But in most of the cultures that are represented here this would be disrespectful, so if I want to be kind in a diverse Church I have to be kind to the sensibilities of others. I am free to express myself but I also want to be part of a community and I have to adjust a bit.

But on the other hand, the more conservative culture has to learn not to judge someone from a more informal culture, right? because the Pastor preaching with the Hawaiian shirt is perhaps super respectful of the things of God but this is normal in their crazy culture of southern California, their beautiful culture of southern California (laughs), for them it is normal, right? It's normal for them, right?

Well, we have to learn not to judge brothers and this is kind. If we want to be an evangelistic Church, we are going to have people come in here who perhaps do not have Sunday clothes and we have to make them feel: it's okay, come as you are. Maybe we are going to have young people who come in their own style and be kind, it is not to judge them saying: you have to change before. No, it is to come as you are. But on the other hand if we want to be part of a community I have to adjust.

This was all part of the eating meat offered to idols controversy in the early Church. The apostle Paul bought meat in stores from some animals that had been offered to idols, sacrificed to idols, he did not mind; He prays, thanks God and eats well but there were members of the Church who were scandalized by that, so he says: well, I become a vegetarian so as not to offend them because it is not what I want but rather it is what will bless to my brothers, kindness.

Brothers: everything I just said applies to churches, families, workplaces, societies that lose goodness and become polarized societies with groups and factions shouting at each other without listening, all this applies to Christians and non-Christians but for Christians goodness is more than just something nice, it is something eternal. We know that at the end of days God is going to evaluate our lives and in part he is going to evaluate the quality of our goodness.

I want to end that time by sharing a testimony of a dream that I had years ago and I am not much for prophetic dreams, they happen to me sometimes but not every night, but sometimes they do. That was three years ago and I never forget it. It was a dream that I had very briefly in which I was close to a person, it was an emaciated man, his face suffered well, right? and he was dying and restless, and dying, he was dying and I was there very close, and it was something so palpable and I still see it clearly.

And in the dream I tried to be kind to him and calm him down, and make him feel calm, you know, and there I saw, he was still dying, and his face changed and I saw that the beard was the beard of Jesus, and I saw that It was Jesus, and I saw that it was the face, it was Jesus dying there; and then in the dream he looks at me, he calms down, like the musicians release them, and he looks at me, and the anguish in his eyes goes away, and he looked into my calm eyes, and almost a smile, and he died.

And I woke up and remembered the Word where Jesus said: "When you do it for the least of My brothers, you have done it for Me. I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was in prison and you came to me." visit. I was sick and you took care of me."

And those who had lived a life of goodness don't even realize it, you know how things go, they say: but when, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, when did we see you thirsty and feed you? to drink? Jesus says: When you have done it for one of these, the least of My brothers, you have done it for Me.

To be kind, for the Christian, this is to love Jesus Christ directly, to touch Jesus. The person on the street you greet, the person you let into traffic, the person you care for in the hospital is Jesus and Jesus feels it. When you touch it, you touch Jesus and one day all these acts of kindness are going to be celebrated in front of multitudes of people and angels and they are going to be celebrated in eternity because we have done it for Jesus Christ.

We have a mission to live brothers. Every day we are going to be presented with opportunities; We are not going to let these opportunities pass us by. Don't miss the chances God gives you, let's make the most of them, amen? Let's stand up.

Lord: we thank you that you are kind and kind to us Lord. God we thank you for your kindness to us. How many times have you taken care of us when we didn't know it Lord, how many times Lord, You Lord have touched us and we didn't even realize it. Lord, thank you for the way in which You visit us in daily life, in the people closest to us, in the people with whom we work, in the people of our brothers and sisters here in this Church, in the person of people who annoy us, our enemies, You Lord are visiting us. Give us a perspective that has spiritual eyes to see the person not in a worldly way but in a spiritual way, that we can love them and know that we are loving You, in Jesus Name, amen.