You & Your Family ¢ Benny Bong has been a family and marital therapist for more than 30 years, and is a certified work-life consultant. He was the first recipient of the AWARE Hero Award, received in 2011, and is a member of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church.
Blissful indifference
R
ecently, many were unsettled, if not shocked, by
I find it refreshing that those who demonstrated compassion
news reports of a family’s cruelty to their domestic
did so not because they knew or hoped that their kind
helper, who was abused and tortured to the point of
deeds would be noticed or rewarded. They saw the needy
death. Then there was the case of a son who abused his
for who they were, the hungry as those who needed food
elderly mother for years. Fortunately, she survived, but her
and the homeless as people without shelter.
physical and psychological wounds will probably be severe and long lasting.
Mother Teresa, when asked why she helped those rejected by society, said: “I see Jesus in every human being.” If only
How did no one know or act? The old lady had sought
we shared her perspective.
treatment for her injuries and the medical staff surely saw that her injuries and wounds did not match the description
But we do not, do we? We turn our gaze away from people
of how they were sustained. Yet, no one could or would do
who are obviously sad and downtrodden. We deafen our
more to help.
ears to the cries and screams of those who are being hurt and abused. We tell ourselves to mind our own business.
In Matthew 25:31– 40, we are told that when Christ comes again, all of us will stand before His throne to receive
But what is our “business” if not to love the world? Are we
our reward or punishment. We will be judged by how we
not to be the hands and feet of our loving Father and be the
lived our lives on earth, especially with regard to how we
expression of His love to a world broken by division and strife?
responded to the needy, less privileged, disadvantaged and even to prisoners.
Or, are we like the people who justified themselves with “When did we see you?” Living in this age of social
A constant refrain in the account were the words, “When
media and information overload, saying we are unaware
did we see you... (hungry, naked, lonely)?” Besides those
of the needs around us is to pretend not to know and be
condemned by their selfishness, even the charitable ones
indifferent. Have we become, in the words of a song by
asked this question. Jesus’ response was that God, even
Pink Floyd (1979), “comfortably numb”?
if not seen, is present in each needy individual. Our Lord, the King of kings, the Creator and Master of the universe,
On the Day of Reckoning, on which side will we be found? Will
identifies with the least of these individuals. He is willing
we be numbered among the righteous or will we be in the
to be like them.
group offering the weak excuse, “When did we see you...?”
METHODIST MESSAGE May 2021
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