Monday, October 27, 2014

THE SHARING SIBLING

THE SHARING SIBLING


                             One afternoon, a wealthy man was waiting for the train in a railway station in south India. A poor boy in torn clothes approached him and begged for some money. He said he was very hungry and did not get anything to eat on that day. Seeing his pitiable state, the man bought a packet of lunch from a stall and gave it to the boy. The boy thanked him and sat on a seat. He opened the packet and started to eat in a hurry. The man was sure that the boy was really hungry and turned to the pages of a book he was reading.
                             Suddenly he noticed that the boy had abruptly stopped eating and was packing the rest of the meal in a hurry. The man assumed that the boy was preparing to throw away the rest of the meal into the waste bin. He rose from his seat and angrily asked the boy why he was not eating the full meal. The boy was in tears. He told the man that he just remembered his younger sister who had nothing to eat on that day. In his exhaustion, he had started the meal forgetting her fate and was sorry for that. He ran with the packet to his home to share his meal with his hungry sister.
                             Mother Teresa once said about her unforgettable experience in a poor family in Calcutta. One day she learned that a poor Hindu family with several children was starving for several days. She rushed to the family, carrying in her hands a bag of rice for the family. The mother of the family thankfully received the bag of rice. The starving woman then divided the rice in the bag into two halves and went out with one half of the rice.
                             When she returned, Mother Teresa asked her where she had gone. The woman replied that she went to give a share of the rice to a neighbouring Muslim family which was in a similar state of poverty and starvation. Mother Teresa was touched by the love and compassion of the poor lady which made her share her meagre assets with her starving neighbours. She was happy to see them enjoy the joy of sharing.
                             Albert Schweitzer thought and wrote about the "fellowship of those who bear the mark of pain." Those outside this fellowship usually have great difficulty in understanding what lies behind the pain.
                             The early Christian communities displayed three major qualities: Daring, Caring and Sharing. They had the courage to practise what they preached and believed, even facing adverse conditions and persecutions. They showed care and kindness to each other, especially to the weak, the sick and the poor. 

                            We should be ready to share our possessions with those in greater need. Sir Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

                          "The group of believers was one in mind and heart. No one said that any of his belongings was his own, but they all shared with one another, everything they had...There was no one in the group who was in need" {Acts 4: 32-34}.

                            In his Epistle, St. John wrote, "My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action" {1 John 3: 18}. "God is love and whoever lives in love lives in union with God and God lives in union with him" {1 John 4: 16}.

                            Worried over the lack of love among some Corinthians, St. Paul wrote to them his famous words of wisdom about real love, "I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell..." {1Corinthians 13: 1-13}.

                             Love is the language that Jesus taught his disciples as the universal medium for evangelisation. Love can be heard by the deaf, seen by the blind and felt even by the new-born and the mentally retarded.

                            We may give without loving; but we cannot love without giving. Love is giving all we can. Love is like a smile - neither have any value unless given away. Karl Menninger said, "Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." Mother Teresa said, "It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts."
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© By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip, Darsana Academy, Kottayam-686001, Kerala, India ( Former Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India), Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally,  Leo. S. John, St. Antony's Public School,
 Anakkal, Kanjirappally and Neil John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally Kottayam-686507, Kerala, India.
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                         This is Story No. 325 in the second site. Please click ‘Older Posts’ at the bottom of a page to read previous stories and click 'Newer Posts' at the bottom of a page to read newer stories in these sites. Please click on a word in the 'Story Themes' to read stories on that theme.

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