CHARITY BEGINS WITH THE SACRIFICE

***CHARITY BEGINS WITH THE SACRIFICE*** A rich business man and his assistant were travelling around a village on a tour. As they walked along, they saw a boy pulling a plough (= a large farming implement with blades fixed in a frame … drawn over soil to turn it over and cut furrows in preparation for the planting of seeds - usually pulled only by animals) … which was steered by an old man. It amused the assistant so much that he insisted on taking a picture of the scene with his little pocket camera. Later he showed the picture to a priest in the next village, remarking about the peculiar spectacle. "Yes," said the Priest, "it seems a very strange way to plough a field that way. But I happen to know the boy and old man well. They are very poor. However, when the little church was built here in the village… … they wanted to contribute something. They had no money. They had no grain to spare and winter was coming on. So they sold their ox which pulled the plough and gave the money to the church building fund… … and now - minus the valuable animal - they have to pull the plough themselves." The men looked at each other for a moment, then the assistant said, "But what a magnanimous sacrifice! Why did you allow it?" "They did not feel that way about it" said the priest, "They regarded it as a great joy that they had an ox to give to the Lord's work!" Yes, true charity happens when there is an involvement of sacrifice and surrender.