Face of Others make me Responsible

(From the Mission imparting exercise of Rev. Fr. Abraham Mulamoottil, Chairman Pushpagiri for Directors and Principles of Pushpagiri Group of Institutions) 
Living a silly life, playing a broken fiddle and leading a simple life. No worries as Epicureans because there is no tomorrow, enjoy today lavishly that make me irresponsible. But while missing the great 'Self', we are leaving the same but simple 'Others'. Then How the faces of others make me responsible?   It is better to start with a story..............
(This is why Levinas's thinking begins with the Other's face. The fact that the Other makes me responsible...........)

 

"There was a farm house in a Village. Once a mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! 

There       is        a     mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

     

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness." 

The warning of mouse was totally rejected by everyone and at last every one became the victims of  one thing. Most of us thinks that "this is none of my business". There is nothing to care others. An attitude of greed and selfishness. Let me quote an incident from The Holy Bible, Mark 2:1-12-A paralytic man, who was carried by four men.They striven a lot to because of the crowd, but uncovered the roof and lowered the mat the man was lying on. Jesus said to the paralytic,“I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”all were amazed and glorified God,saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

I think whole the  themes included in this small incident. Jesus delivered the paralytic man due to the outstanding care of others. Really the face of feeble man made their friends responsible. This is what is expected from us, if we can stretch our hands to care God will come as CURE. 

We are caregivers, God is the cure giver.Often we don’t care for others because we are afraid that we don’t have the answers or can solve somebody’s dilemma. God lifts that burden from us and tells us “Just care for others and leave the cure giving to Me.

We are caregivers, God is the cure giver.So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, remember when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.