There are certain truths that we know intuitively, without need of any proof – scientific or otherwise. Like, what goes up must come down. Or, what goes around comes around. Or, the quintessence of living is not in the receiving but in the giving. The sun exists to give out light, heat and energy. We love flowers for the color and beauty they give to their surroundings.
And so it is in my life. We are defined not by what we possess or by what we have received but by what we are willing and able to give. A man and a woman give each other their love and in the process are able to bring new life into the world. Friendships are built and nurtured by the amount of time we give and invest in the relationship. Families and communities are all about the giving and the sharing that the ties that bind them are made stronger.
One news item I came across recently has bothered me no end. The top fifty traders in Wall Street make more money than the five hundred thousand teachers who teach in the nation’s school. It is a sad commentary of our times how a few can be so grasping, greedy and grabbing. It is ennobling to think that there are more who are willing to give and in the process create real value in this world.
O bless the Lord, my soul!
~ Psalm 104
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Mark 7:14-23