Love leads us to peace

Father Tony Chakkunga

A long time ago, a girl named Lilli got married to live with her husband and mother-in-law. In a short time Lilli found that she couldn’t get along with her mother-in-law at all. Their personalities were very different and Lilli was angered by many of her mother-in-law’s habits. In addition, she criticized Lilli constantly. Days passed and weeks passed. Lilli and her mother-in-law never stopped arguing and fighting. It made Lilli’s husband sad and distressed. Finally, Lilli could not stand her mother-in-law’s bad temper and dictatorship any longer and she decided to do something. Lilli went to see her father’s good friend, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told him the situation and asked if he would give her some poison so she could solve the problem once and for all. Mr. Huang thought for a while, and finally said, “Lilli, I will help you solve your problem, but you must listen to me and obey what I tell you.” “Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do whatever you tell me to do,” said Lilli. Mr. Huang went into the back room and returned in a few minutes with a package of herbs. “You can’t use quick-acting poison to get rid of your mother-in-law, because that would cause people to become suspicious,” he told Lilli. “Therefore, I have given you a number of herbs that will slowly build up poison in her body. Every other day prepare some delicious meal and put a little of these herbs in her serving. Now, in order to make sure that nobody suspect you when she dies, you must be very careful to act very friendly towards her. Don’t argue with her, obey her every wish, and treat her like a queen.” Lilli was so happy. She thanked Mr. Huang and hurried home to start her plot of murdering her mother-in-law. Weeks went by, and months went by, and every other day, Lilli served the specially treated food to her mother-in-law. She remembered what Mr. Huang had said about avoiding suspicion, so she controlled her temper, obeyed her mother-in-law, and treated her like her own mother. After six months had passed, the whole household had changed. Lilli had practiced controlling her temper so much that she found that she almost never got mad or upset. She hadn’t had an argument with her mother-in-law in six months because she now seemed much kinder and easier to get along with. The mother-in-law’s attitude toward Lilli changed, and she began to love Lilli like her own daughter. She kept telling friends and relatives that Lilli was the best daughter-in-law one could ever find. Lilli and her mother-in-law were now treating each other like a real mother and daughter. Lilli’s husband was very happy to see what was happening. One day, Lilli came to see Mr. Huang and asked for his help again. “Dear Mr. Huang,” she said. “Please help me to keep the poison from killing my mother-in-law. She is changed into such a nice woman, and I love her like my own mother. I do not want her to die because of the poison I gave her.” Mr. Huang smiled and nodded his head. “Lilli, there is nothing to worry about. I never gave you any poison. The herbs I gave you were vitamins to improve her health. The only poison was in your mind and your attitude toward her, but that has been all washed away by the love which you gave to her.” This is a nice story. Have you realized that how you treat others is exactly how they will treat you? There is a wise Chinese saying: “This person who loves others will also be loved in return.” God might be trying to work in another person’s life through you. Jesus says, “Do for others just what you want them to do for you.” (Luke 6:31) We, the Christians, are called to love. Love leads us to peace in our families and community. When we examine our day-to-day problems in our families and community, we realize the cause of every evil in our families and community is the lack of genuine love. We all want to be loved, but many of us are hesitant to love first. Many of us are thinking about our own happiness and achievements, we don’t care about others. We blame others and demand they are to be changed, not us. In the Christmas story we realize that God the Father came down to be with us and took the human body to make us holy and divine. How can we be divine and holy? When we are loving each other, we make our life holy and divine. In Jesus we see the real love and from Him we learn how to love one another. Nowadays we are preparing to celebrate the Christmas, the Love of God made flesh among us. Nov. 30 we begin our Advent season. This Advent prepares to change our selfish attitude to loving attitude to create a new heart to welcome Jesus, God made flesh among us. Christmas is the story of the Love of God and makes us able to continue the same Love of God in our lives.