MOMMY AND PUPPY
A chronic alcoholic
lived in an Indian village with his wife and child. He used to shout madly and
beat his wife every day after reaching home in a heavily drunk state. The
simple wife and the innocent infant were afraid of his cruel and violent nature.
They suffered silently and helplessly.
One day, he brought home a packet of meat
and asked his wife to prepare his favourite dish for dinner. Then he went away
to enjoy his regular drink of country liquor.
The wife was busy
with the preparation of the dish for dinner but their pet puppy silently
sneaked into the kitchen and consumed the meat completely. The angry wife hit
the animal with a heavy stick and it died on the spot. Afraid to face the husband, she cut the puppy
into pieces and made a dish with the puppy's meat. The child was silently
watching the events. When the drunk father arrived for dinner and was about to
start his meals, the child was in a terrible dilemma. She wanted to reveal the
truth but was terribly afraid of the consequences. She was equally reluctant to
let her father eat the puppy's meat unknowingly. As the child could not hold
her tongue any more, she declared aloud,
"If I tell the truth, Papa will beat my Mommy.
But if don't tell it, Papa will eat my
puppy!"
Hearing
these innocent words, the man was terribly upset. He realized that his cruel
habits had caused this unpleasant situation. He decided to stop his harmful
habit and stay away from alcohol forever and embraced his child and wife
affectionately. With tears in their eyes, they thanked God for His blessings.
At low levels alcohol may be a drug or a food but at higher levels it is
definitely a poison, which distorts the personality, destroys domestic life and
initiates sinful anti-social activities. Alcohol appears to dissolve problems
and worries for a while, but they later reappear in bulk. Alcoholism has ruined the life of millions.
Alcoholics
have successfully recovered from the habit by medical treatment, psychological
counselling and prayerful participation in retreats and meditation. But many
have returned to alcoholism when they 'celebrate' their victory in the company
of their former 'companions'! Hence former contacts and tempting situations
should be avoided after anti-addiction treatment. Seeking God's grace to
withstand temptations, many have left this sinful habit and led a successful
life.
Drinking alcohol,
smoking, chewing pan, abuse of drugs, watching immoral pictures etc. are sinful
pleasures that destroy our health, peace, purity, character and life leading to
physical, mental and moral disease and death. The Holy Bible warns that drunkards will not possess God's
Kingdom {1 Corinthians 6:10, Galatians 5:19-21}. It is stupid to get drunk
{Proverbs 20:1, 23:20, 23:29-35}. Wine has been the ruin of many {Sirach
31:25-31}. Let us avoid all harmful habits.
St. Paul asks, “Don’t you know that your body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by
God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; He bought you for a price. So
use your bodies for God’s glory” {1 Corinthians 6:19, 20}.
......................................................................................................
© 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 our web-sites:
This
is Story No. 240 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.
1 comment:
So true! But how to get the message to the masses, that is the real issue
Post a Comment