HAPPY HOME
Archbishop
Fulton. J. Sheen (1895-1979), in his renowned book, "Way to
Happiness" narrates an incident in the life of a pious nun residing in a cloistered
Carmelite convent (chapter 31). The
nuns were leading a simple, silent and austere life and were practising
penance, prayer and meditation without access to the outside world. Once,
during the feast of St. Therese, the cloister of the convent was opened to
visitors who wanted to witness their lifestyle. Among the visitors was an
industrialist who could not appreciate the silent lifestyle of the sisters. He
met a young, beautiful and highly educated nun and showed her a large, palatial
house on the opposite hill. It was large and luxurious with all modern
amenities, a gorgeous garden, beautiful buildings, expensive cars and fine
furniture. He asked her, "If you had the fortune to be born in and own
such a house with all facilities for a luxurious modern life, would you have
left it and joined this convent with only poverty, penance and prayer?"
The nun gave a short but firm reply, "Sir,
that was my home!"
Her
words displayed the spirit of true dedication to her vocation. She could find
real happiness in a simple life of poverty, silence and sacrifice with prayer,
penance and meditation. So she could easily abandon her rich home and all its
luxuries following the footsteps of Jesus. She could appreciate the beauty of
austerity, simplicity and poverty.
Jesus concludes the
parable of the rich fool who planned to build bigger barns to store his corn,
with the words: "But God said to him, “You fool! This very night you will
have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for
yourself?”{Luke 12:16-21}.
Once a
rich, young man approached Jesus to learn the way to receive eternal
life. Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you
have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then
come and follow me" {Matthew 19:
21}. Jesus advised, "“Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out,
and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no
thief can get to them and no moth can destroy them {Luke 12:33}.
Money may fetch us amusement,
but not happiness; a bed, but not sleep; books, but not brains; a car, but not
safety; companions, but not friends; education, but not wisdom; flattery, but
not respect; food, but not appetite; a house but not a home; luxuries, but not
culture; medicines, but not health; ornaments, but not beauty; a violin, but
not music.
Let us save our riches in heaven.
..........................................................................................................................
© By: Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science
& Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, Prof. Mrs.
Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally and Leo.
S. John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally,
Kottayam-686507, Kerala , India
For more moral
stories, parables and anecdotes for
students, catechists, teachers and preachers, kindly visit the web-sites:
This is Story No. 208
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment