By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Panaji: Quick decision, desire to help another, ready to dare, selflessness are some of the thoughts that run across my mind when I read the story of the little Hebrew girl and Naaman, the official (2 Kings 5:1-19)
She was brought as a slave in the house of Naaman. Yet, I can see the freedom within her. Freedom of a child of God. Her heart went out to the master, as soon as she recognized that her master was affected by leprosy. She had the experience of the “living God” all her life. The God of her ancestors. Goodness reigned in her heart.
Brought to live among idolaters, she clung to her own faith in the living God and sought to share her knowledge of Him with others. Hers was a strong, contagious faith, enabling her to live without any feeling of homesickness in an alien land, and any resentment against her captors. Her love for God inspired her to love her masters and to win her way into their affection and confidence. She never hid her light under a bushel. Although only a maid, this little girl did not feel she was too unimportant to influence others.
“Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy,” her suggestion was at once taken notice of and acted upon. Such was the impact she had created in her master’s house through her faithfulness to the living God.
The reports of these days bring home to us people who have saved the lives of other people, persons unknown to them. Their selflessness kept the other alive or gave the other another chance to live.
Each day in the Eucharistic sacrifice Jesus asks, “Can you die for humanity? I have given you my life.”
I tell myself, God came to live among us. Is the power of God alive in my life?
Someone has said, “There is inside you all the potential to be whatever you want to be, all of the energy to do whatever you want to do. Imagine yourself as you would like to be, doing what you want to do, and each day take one step towards your dream.”
Perhaps this is what Jyothy, a B Sc nursing student practiced in her life. She was travelling in a bus to her college from the hostel for her classes. She and other passengers in the bus observed a speeding truck coming towards the bus. Those who were on the right side moved to the left side as they expected the truck would hit the bus on right side. As Jyothy got up to move she saw a gentleman, Vikas fast asleep on the seat in front of her. While everyone thought of their own safety, Jyothy tried to push the gentleman from the side, and just then the truck hit the bus injuring Jyothy.
Vikas was awake at the sound and saw blood flowing from the right hand side of Jyothy. He tried to stop it and holding her hand and realized something was amiss. A part of her limb was cut off.
He took her to the hospital and on the way, he was told what happened. Jyothy was injured trying to save him. Her presence of mind had saved his life.
He could not understand how a young woman could give her life to save a stranger. He and his brother helped her through the hospital treatment and reached her to home.
Her parents were very upset and did not want to accept the situation. Why she had to help a stranger risking her own life, was their question.
For Jyothy it was her mission to save another.
Vikas acknowledged her self-sacrificing love saying, “Because of her I am alive today.” He and his parents welcomed her into their home, and into the life of Vikas.
Denis Waitly says, “To exist just for yourself is meaningless. You can achieve the most satisfaction when you feel related to some greater purpose in life, something greater than yourself.”
Adds Henri Frederic Amiel, “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.”
We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in is, how we can take it, what we can do with it, and that is what really counts in the end.
Salute this brave woman