GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

Give and you shall receive is a law set in motion by God. 

 

Once a command comes from God’s mouth, it means two things:

 the law is for eternity and it is immutable. Set in the command in

 question is also God’s promise: you shall receive.  In the physical world,

we see an immediate reaction to an action.  When it comes to human beings,

the return may not be direct and immediate. But, the seed of love once sowed,

will sprout at one point or another. The One who has made the promise,

ensures that it will happen.

Sure, we can sit on our thrones of grace at home and intellectually dissect

the law and say, “It’s not fully true and it does not apply in the 21st century.” 

Cynics reap abandonment and loneliness in the end.  Likewise, those who

are covetous end up with lots of material riches, but remain unloved

and lonely.

 

The law in question can be seen operating throughout nature.  The carbon

dioxide we exhale is absorbed by plants and trees; and, in turn, the oxygen

they give out benefits us.  None is higher than the other in this grand scheme

of things. 

 

If I were to say that I don’t like plants and so I will not ‘give’ carbon dioxide,

I would have to stop breathing first.  I will certainly die before I kill the plant.

The same is true in our relationships: if I decide that I will not love my son

or my daughter or my spouse, I will have to kill something in me first –

being human. In hardening my heart, I will not be able to experience the

most wonderful of gifts God has given us – to love and to feel loved.

 

It was St. (Mother) Teresa who said, “Even the rich are hungry for love,

for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.” 

I am but an ant in front of St. Teresa, but as a spiritual counselor,

I whole-heartedly endorse what she has said. I have seen it work.

 

A wife abuser and alcoholic, with three daughters, had a wife who never

cursed him for what he would do to her. As he would go out for his drinks,

she would recite the rosary with the kids and pray every day, unfailingly

for her husband.  The oldest daughter would often ask the mother, “How can

you pray for someone who treats you so badly? What’s wrong with you?

Why don’t you just leave him?” The mother would always reply, “God has

brought us together and I have promised God to love your father till the end.

He is a good man. One day, God will heal him.” 

 

Aware that the husband’s behavior was causing psychological harm to the

youngest daughter (7 years old at the time), the mother placed her in a

charitable boarding school.  The older ones, fearing for their mother’s life,

would not leave her side.

A few months after the youngest daughter was placed in the boarding school,

the man went to visit her. The Mother Superior told him that he would have to

come the next day because the gates were closed, but he was adamant. The

Mother Superior then told him that he would bring the girl up to the gate,

but that she would not open it.  When the girl was brought to him, this is what

she told her father between her sobs, “Daddy, please don’t come to visit me

again. You come home drunk every day, you beat up mother every day, while

we live in fear; and I am the one who has been punished. I am here because of

you; I am without my mother and without my sisters.  Instead of leaving

you, mummy says she will love you till the end.  We don’t understand

how anyone can love someone like you. So, please don’t come to see

me again.” 

Then she ran to her dormitory leaving her father trembling and

sobbing uncontrollably outside the gate. The seed that his wife was

sowing all the years sprouted at that very moment.

 

Even as he took the bus to return home, he sobbed all the way. No sooner

did his wife open the door for him, he fell at her feet and begged for

forgiveness.  Now, they were all crying tears of joy.  Soon, the one in the

boarding school returned to a home that was filled with love again.

 

I have met this family and to me the biggest mystery is this: How

could as mall girl come up with words like that?  Was it just coincidence;

or was it the Holy Spirit’s doing?

 To me it is the latter; because God had a promise to keep!

 It’s time to love the ones God has given you. For without family, we are empty.

 

 Oliver Sutari

(Counselor)

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