Set Afire

I do not care for the riches of the world.

This is how the next story from Les Dejo Mi Paz 4 starts.  It is titled, “Enkindle the flame.”

As before, all that is indented is straight from the Book.  ENJOY!

     It is told that a very powerful King from India was very famous and well-known for his posture of indifference towards material wealth and for his profound religiosity; qualities that were quite unusual for a person in that type of environment.

     Having heard about these circumstances and moved by curiosity, a subject set out to find out the Monarch’s secret on how not be be dazzled by gold, jewels and excessive luxuries that were characteristic of nobility in that era.

     Thus, when before the King and after the formal greetings and courtesies that the formality of the situation required, the Subject asked his King, “Your Majesty, what is the secret to maintain a Spiritual Life amidst so many riches?”

     The King responded, “I will tell you, but first you must go through the entire palace so that you may calculate the magnitude of its riches; take in your hands a lit candle, but I warn you, if it extinguishes, I will have you decapitated.”

     The Subject did as he was instructed.  After having finished his exploration, the King asked, “What do you think of my Riches?”

     The Subject responded, “Your Majesty, as I journeyed through the Palace I had no time to see anything.  All of my attention was focused on ensuring that candle did not go out.”

     Then the King said, “That is my secret.  I am so busy trying to stimulate my interior flame, that I am not interested in Worldly Riches.  In reality, I am just an Administrator of the Kingdom’s Things. 

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     Many times we wish to live as Better Christians y have a Fruitful Spiritual Life, but we do not choose to turn our gaze away from those things that surround us and blind us with their apparent beauty.**

Happy the rich who is found to be blameless and does not go chasing after gold. 
Who is he, so that we can congratulate him, for he has achieved marvels among his fellows? 
Who has been through this test and emerged perfect? He may well be proud of that! Who has had the chance to sin and has not sinned, had the chance to do wrong and has not done it? 
His fortune will be firmly based and the assembly will acclaim his generosity (Ecclesiasticus 31: 8-11).

     It is futile to search for Happiness only in Material things without having the Joy of the Spirit.

     Happiness does not depend upon what happens Around Us…But on what happens Within Us.