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Monday, December 13, 2004
Carvajal: Living vs. existing
By Orlando P. Carvajal
uncutgems
* Sharing our material possessions with others comes only as a tangible affirmation of our care and concern for others. It cannot be all that we share because people need love and understanding more than anything else. They need to be given their dignity and self-respect by being loved as a fellow human being.
Dec. 28 is the feast of the Holy Innocents. Many people still celebrate this day by playing a practical joke on someone. The Holy Innocents, of course, are honored as saints not because they played a practical joke on Pilate. It was too deadly to be practical. They are honored as saints because they gave their innocent lives to save the infant Jesus from certain death.
The Holy Innocents, like all the other saints of the Church, tell us what life is all about. Their feast day offers an opportune time to reflect on the meaning of life.
When we study the lives of saints, we can immediately discern a common thread running through all of them. They all did something for others. They all made a difference for the lives of others. There might have been saints who acquired power and wealth. We definitely do not honor them for the power and the wealth. We honor them as saints because they either gave up these material possessions in order to serve others or used them to make a better life for others. Many, like the Holy Innocents, gave their lives to save others.
Just recently, I was watching an interview on television of a rich personality. He was spending a lot of his own money giving poor students a chance to get a good education. When asked why he was doing this and not spending all his money instead on luxury boats, on luxury cars or on having fun and drinking the cup of pleasure to the last drop, his answer was irresistibly simple and yet astoundingly profound. When I heard it I decided right there and then I would write about it. He said that if you do not give or share your good fortune with others, you would not be living at all. You would be simply existing. He said he received so much from life he felt he must give at least some of it back. This has made a lot of people happy, including himself.
There goes a saint if I know one. A saint is one who lives and does not just exist. To live, to be really alive, one has to grow. To grow, one has to go out of oneself, one has to go beyond oneself and give of oneself. And what do you give? Whatever it is that you have. You cannot give what you do not have, remember? Hence, if you meet someone without a smile, give him one of yours, if you see somebody troubled, give him your inner peace. If you run into people nobody cares about, give them your care and concern. If you see somebody who is misunderstood, give him your understanding.
It is the deeply human qualities we have which we should share. Sharing our material possessions with others comes only as a tangible affirmation of our care and concern for others. It cannot be all that we share because people need love and understanding more than anything else. They need to be given their dignity and self-respect by being loved as a fellow human being. As Mother Teresa accurately put it, “The poor are hungry not just for bread but for human dignity.” A saint is a being for others. Very often, he must give bread but only out of respect of the dignity of another human being who happens to be in need.
(December 13, 2004 issue)
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