By Fr Adolf Washington –
A young man took his old father to a restaurant for dinner. The father being very old and weak, while eating, dropped food on his shirt and trousers. People watched him in disgust while his son remained calm.
Finishing dinner, his son, gently took him to the washroom, wiped the food particles, removed the stains, combed his hair and fitted his spectacles on. When they came out, people around watched them in dead silence, unable to grasp how someone could embarrass themselves publicly like that. As the son was walking out with his father an old man amongst the diners called out to the son asking “Don’t you think you have left something behind?”.
The son replied, “No sir, I haven’t”.
The old man quipped, “Yes, you have! You left a lesson for every son and hope for every father”.
The diners at the restaurant were awe-struck.
With life on the fast-lane and people becoming increasingly impatient, aging parents are sometimes considered a burden and children send them away to hospices or homes for the aged. Current statistics tell us that homes for the aged and hospices all across the world are in increasing demand.
We will never fully know the love and sacrifice of our parents until we become parents ourselves and begin aging.
The Lord blesses those who listen to and honour their parents. “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12) “Listen to your father who gave you life and do not despise your mother when she is old” ( Proverbs 23:22 ). “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck” (Proverbs 1:8-9)
Jesus had immense love for his Mother (Mary) that even in his dying moments on the cross, He entrusted her to the care of His disciple John. “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman (a highly respectable word), behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27)
How much do you respect your parents?