Dear Friends, Perhaps, one of the things that make or break relationships, is sensitivity or the lack of it towards the other person. Well intentioned and sometimes, not so well - intentioned inquiries hurt people, especially those in the same prayer group, cell or parish! You yourself might have been a victim to this! Certain questions about family, finance, illness ...the list goes on... Therefore, the relevance of Benny Punnathara's (of Shalom, Calicut) article forwarded herewith The Priest & his assistant in the Good Samaritan's story who didn't help the wounded man were right in their actions. They were not supposed to get "defiled" on their way to worship God as per the Law those days. However, Jesus had a different view. He praised the Good Samaritan - the kind man from the enemy state of the wounded man, who was: - Sensitive - Kind - Arranged to care the wounded man. In other words, to Sympathize is all the more easy for us as Charismats (We have a soft corner for everybody!). That's not enough of a Christian, unfortunately! We need to Empathize. When you add "an action of Love" to Sympathy and you have Empathy. Examples we know: Veronica wiping Jesus' face during His Passion, Mother Mary helping out panic stricken Cana family with wine, Jesus asking the Blind beggar - "What do you want?" and many more. Sometimes all we need to do is just to make silent intercessions without asking embarrassing questions (which satisfies a personal need "the need to know it"!). Jesus NEVER asks for an account of anyone's past. He's only interested to know if you are willing...willing to follow Him NOW...faithfully!!! May we have His Heart and Mind to follow His Life Style! I dedicate this mail & Benny's message to all the JYs and the would be JYs and all those who were ever hurt by our in-sensitiveness. God bless us all, Shaji Chacko, Dubai [TABLE NOT SHOWN]
13 October 2002 [TABLE NOT SHOWN] **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. For more info on the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet To unsubscribe from the list send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet/join To get a standard help message on the list services send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
