Being kind

I heard Aung Sun Suu Kyi speaking recently in Oslo as she accepted the Nobel peace prize.  She spoke of how important other people's kindness was to her and how every act of kindness helped to sustain her over the years.  So now I find myself naturally praising others for their kindness to me, especially with mum and dad's death. 

As Aung Sun Suu Kyi says:
"Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart.  Kindness can change the lives of people."

I apply this to my ministry with urban refugees.  Today I help one desperate case and feel that I have shown some kindness.  Then I receive a call from Caritas Thailand offices asking for advice about helping a Pakistani family here fleeing persecution back home and appearing with a letter from their parish priest.  I then think should one be more likely to receive help because they are Catholic and have a letter from their priest as the .  Is this being kind?  Then, later again, another Pakistani family, looking desperate, comes to my door at BRC asking for money for the rent.  I don't have the money and it is not good policy just to hand money straight over just on request.  Is this being kind? 

Yes, being kind is important but I can't just respond to people's needs as they request.  It is beyond me and my level of resources.  I also have to think of the good of the wider urban refugee community and assess how best to use the available resources, respecting them and not acting to have them become dependent in their need.  I have no answers as I face difficult dilemmas but I hold to Aung Sun Suu Kyi's principle that kindness is a central and good virtue that sustains us.  .