Gifts on loan to us from God (Br Alphonsus Dominic)

A parishioner recently lost her husband to cancer. It has already been several years but she still finds it difficult to accept his dismiss. She had spent the last thirty-eight years of her life with him but now she is all alone. Although, her children are there supporting her in all ways possible, she still can’t let go of her lost. She says, “The close bond that she had with her husband could never be replaced”.

Reflecting on the love relationship that this couple shared and how she misses her husband, got me to reflect on how we treat our loved ones. Our loved ones are a gift to us from God on loan. They do not belong to us. They are like a new book on loan to us. How do we handle the book in the process of reading and trying to understand its content? Similarly, in the process of life and in interacting with our loved ones, we can choose to relate with them in tender loving care or hurt them by our words and deeds. Most often, we only reflect and realise on the way we have treated our loved ones only when they pass on and return back to God. The question is in what condition do we return them back? Do we return them like a book that is all torn and with dog-eared pages or a nice well kept book back to its owner?

Obviously, no words can totally console one who is grieving, however, one of the consolations that can help in the healing process is to reflect on the relationship one had with the gift of their loved ones. Did I treat God’s gift well at least to the best of my abilities in process of discovering their mystery while they were on loan to me? Have I shown the basic Christian values of appreciation, care, concern, understanding and most of all my love for them? Upon reflecting on these, can there be a possibility of viewing the result of our responsibility in taking care of the gifts endowed upon us as a loan for a purpose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stay tuned for the next post by Br Benedict Chng on 24th Mar 2010.