A ten-year-old boy was standing on the side of the road, trying to wave down the cars that passed by to get them to stop. However, the boy was also quite dirty and it wasn’t a place where cars slowed down much, so no one stopped. The boy saw a brick lying by the roadside and out of desperation decided to throw it at the next car to make it stop.
That car happened to be a luxurious sports car. Even so, the boy didn’t hesitate and threw the brick. Hearing the impact, the car’s owner checked the rearview mirror and saw the boy, and the brick lying in the middle of the road. He stopped the car and got out to check the obvious damage: the boy had thrown the brick and dented his car.
Immediately, filled with rage, he got back into his sports car, drove back to where the boy was, got out, and began shaking him, shouting for an explanation: “Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you know how much this car costs, and you just go and damage it like it’s nothing?” The boy, visibly distressed, tried to apologize. “Apologize? You’re apologizing? You should’ve thought before doing it!”
“Yes, I know, sir,” said the boy, tears now beginning to spill over as he continued, “I’ve been trying to stop someone for a while to ask them to help me pick up my brother who fell out of his wheelchair but no one would stop. My brother is too heavy for me; I can’t do it alone. Please, I need your help!” He pointed toward the side of the road, where a slope led down to his brother lying beside his wheelchair.
A lump formed in the man’s throat. Overwhelmed by what he was hearing, he did not hesitate and went to where the boy’s older brother was lying. He picked him up in his arms and placed him back in the wheelchair. Then he asked where they were going and offered to take them there.
The man still has not repaired the dent in his car. He has kept it as a reminder that he should not be so absorbed in his own life that someone has to throw a brick at him to make him realize they need his help.
Our society is one of too many selfies and too few bricks thrown—because our culture encourages just that: focusing on ourselves and forgetting those around us more and more. This individualistic culture is fostering an ever-deepening narcissistic weakness within us.
We Christians, who are called to be supportive and charitable toward others, are increasingly forgetting these essential elements of our vocation. Being Christian means exactly that: being like Christ, the one who forgot Himself during His earthly life to help all people, to rescue all people from the greatest evil we can suffer—sin. Jesus paid with His life for our ransom, seeking only our good. Therefore, to be Christian, to be a disciple of that Christ, means to forget oneself and be attentive to the good of others.
