A LESSON ON LOVE
A
catechist made special arrangements in his Sunday-school class, before the
students arrived. He brought a huge wooden board and fixed it to the wall. He covered
the board with white drawing paper. He placed several sharp darts and sketch
pens of different colours on the table.
As the children entered the room,
they were curious to know about the special arrangements for the day. When they
were ready, the teacher told them, "Today, you have a chance to express
your feelings to your enemies. Identify your worst enemy and draw his or her
picture on this wide screen."
The children
were quick to react. They grabbed the pens and drew pictures of their worst
enemies- someone that they disliked most or had made them angry- on the white
drawing paper fixed on the board. When the drawing was over, he asked the
students to express their feelings to their enemies. They took the darts from
the table and threw them at the figures
of their enemies with all their might. The students were excited. They threw
the darts with maximum force , shouting foul words to express their rage. When
they were calm and apparently satisfied with the exercise, the teacher asked
them to place the darts on the table and return to their seats.
He then slowly removed the white drawing paper from the board. Everyone
was surprised to see a huge painting of Jesus just underneath the drawing
paper. The darts thrown by the students had disfigured the face and body of
Jesus. It was pierced and mangled at several places. Just below the wounded
figure of Jesus, these words of Jesus were displayed in bold and clear letters:
"I tell you, whenever you did this
for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!"{Matthew
25: 40}.
The students burst into tears and sincerely cried aloud, "I am
sorry, I am sorry, please forgive me, Jesus!" They lost all bitterness
towards their apparent enemies and understood the new commandment of Jesus, "Love one another. As I have loved you,
so you must love one another" {John 14: 34}.
........................................................................................................
© 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, 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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