Once there was a wealthy young man, God-fearing in nature who got married to a beautiful young lady. Both were very happy but the woman even though she was provided with everything the world could give was not happy. The man being a good person gave everything to make her happy but still she would always be disturbed and unhappy. He showed her to the best doctors, councillors, took her to different exotic places around the world but nothing could change her.
One fine day, there was a preacher who had come to their parish to give a retreat and this man took his wife for counselling. The only thing that the wife said was she has committed a great sin in the past before marriage for which she had confessed and that she is sure even after confession it cannot be forgiven. Understanding her concern the father told the lady to come along with him for a walk by the river side that evening.
While walking on the banks of the river the preacher took this opportunity to tell her to pretend that they are talking to God and confessing their sins to God. And as a penance God is asking them to pick up a stone equivalent to the size of their sin and to throw the stone in the river. The preacher takes a small stone to the size of his sin and throws it in the water asking the lady what she saw in the water. She replied that there was a noise with a small splash and the stone slowly sank in the river.
Now was the turn of the lady to do the same and the preacher said; knowing her sin he will help her carry a big stone that she chooses to throw. Picking up the huge stone they did the same as the preacher had done, threw the stone in the river. Once again the preacher questioned the lady asking her to describe what she saw. This time also her answer was the same but it made a very big noise with a huge splash of water so big that they were wet and the stone went into the river sinking slowly with calmness coming to the river once again.
Keeping the experiment in mind the preacher compared the woman sin saying even though both of them had different stone to the size of their sins once thrown into the river both could not be seen and that after the stones sank they brought calmness once again.
Once the woman understood this formula and changed the way she was thinking, there was great rejoicing and happiness in her married life and she was able to love her husband like never before. We need to guard our spoken word to receive only by saying what we desire to have which is acceptable and pleasing to God.
Tome de Souza
