A RECKLESS ATTACK
Tony and Teena were recently married
couples. They lived in a South Indian village. A month after their wedding, Tony
had to go abroad to work in a foreign country. There was no one to stay with
Teena. Her close friend, Meena invited her to stay with her. Teena closed their
house and moved to her friend’s house in the town. Meena had a small child, who
was very fond of Teena. Teena was very affectionate to the child and was eager
to look after every need of the child with tender love and care.
Tony returned to their home after several
months. Teena and Tony reopened their house, cleaned it and started to live
there. The next day, he went to town and could return only by dusk. When he
neared their house, he heard the loud sound of Teena. Obviously, she was on the
phone, speaking to someone. Out of curiosity, Tony secretly listened to the
words of his wife. He was shocked to hear her words. She was talking very
affectionately to someone on the phone and stated that she loved that person
more than anything else in this world. She even made the sound of a loving
kiss. Tony could not bear this. He believed that she had a secret lover and was
sharing intimate moments with him. Furiously, he grabbed a heavy stick and gave
an unexpected heavy blow on her head. She gave a loud cry and fell down,
fainted. Filled with rage, Tony took the phone and listened silently, hoping to
identify the criminal. There was a repeated enquiry from an excited lady through the phone,
“Teena, Teena, what happened to you?”
Tony asked her, “Who are you?” The
caller introduced herself as Meena, the close friend of Teena. She said, “Teena
was talking to my child for a long time and I was listening to their intimate talk.
Suddenly, Teena made a loud cry and stopped her talk. What happened?”
Tony was totally upset. He
realized that he had foolishly misunderstood his wife and misinterpreted her
sweet talk to the innocent infant. He felt
extremely sorry for reacting impulsively to Teena’s innocent act of affection and
inflicting a serious injury on his dear and loving wife.
Teena was rushed to the hospital in his car. She had to undergo a major
surgery. After weeks of intensive treatment, she recovered and returned to their
home, but her hair had to be shaved off prior to the surgery. Her head retained
marks of the trauma.
A moment of misunderstanding or
misinterpretation may be very disastrous and may make a couple forget the
millions of memorable moments in their life and lead to erroneous or dangerous
conclusions and decisions. It is wrong to draw conclusions until we know all
the facts. His Grace the Most Rev. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Mar Thoma Valiya
Metropolitan and former Head of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, once remarked
humorously, “Three unmarried girls are responsible for most of the troubles in
the world. These miscreants are: Misunderstanding, Misinterpretation and
Misrepresentation.” Because these three words start with ‘Mis’, they were
described humorously by the Metropolitan as ‘Miss’ troublemakers.
Prejudice, discrimination, racism,
judgement by external appearances and
impulsive reactions have plagued humanity for centuries. Such biased judgements
do not reflect truth or reality. We must use just judgement and intelligent interpretations
to arrive at sensible conclusions and wise decisions.
Jesus teaches us the dangers of wrongly
judging others. Jesus taught, “Do not judge others, so that God will not
judge you, for God will judge you in the same way as you judge others, and He
will apply to you the same rules you apply to others” {Matthew 7: 1, 2}.
“Do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God
will forgive you.”{Luke 6:37}.
When we point one finger at another
person, three other fingers on the same hand point towards us. Often we fail to
notice our own imperfections when we watch the defects and sins of others. When
we are harsh in judging others, we become unable to receive mercy and
compassion.
St. James advises, “Remember this, my dear
brothers! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to
become angry” {James 1: 19}. St. Paul says, “Get rid of all bitterness,
passion and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any
sort. Instead be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one
another, as God has forgiven you through Christ” {Ephesians 4: 31, 32}.
The Holy Bible teaches, “There is no
excuse for unjustified anger; it can bring about your downfall. Wait, and be
patient, and later you will be glad you did” {Sirach 1: 22, 23}.
“If you cannot
control your anger, you are as helpless as a city without walls, open to
attack” {Proverbs 25: 28}. “It is better to be patient than powerful. It is
better to win control over yourself than over whole cities” {Proverbs 16:
32}.
Let us remember that ‘ANGER’ is only one
letter short of ‘DANGER’. Robert Green Ingersoll said, “Anger blows out the
lamp of the mind.” Benjamin Franklin said, “Whatever is begun in anger ends in
shame.” Lord Buddha taught, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal
with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets
burnt.”
Let us
seek God’s blessings and request Him to purify our heads, hearts, hands and
habits.
………………………………………………………….
©
By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip, 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 and Neil
John, Alfeen Public
School, Kanjirappally, Kerala, India. For more moral
stories, parables and anecdotes for students, catechists, teachers and
preachers, kindly visit our web-sites:
This is Story No. 351 in the second site. Please click ‘Older
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