A confession

One thing I have resolved to do is to stop being passive when I see injustice in front of me. There is something I want to confess that has dogged me for quite few months. This was end of last year, we were on our way to church ( as usual we were late, had parked the car and were in a hurry to get to the other side of the road, which was already brimming with sunday traffic). A family of three, husband wife and child passed us by, obviously they were from the same church attending an earlier service, I thought. Then we heard some noises from behind. We turned around and were shocked to see the white kurta clad husband hitting a tramp with a lathi 'borrowed' from an onlooking security guard!! Whatever could have happened? I looked at Manoj and saw him equally confused. The man continued to attack the beggar, who had his hands folded as if pleading to stop the violence, while the wife and child watched silently. Could it be that the beggar was an eve-teaser caught red-handed? Mean while, the kurta man seemed to have seen the stupor on our face, "This dirty beggar was talking filth about our Jesus, I can never forgive such atrocity", he explained. By the time we both recovered, the family had left, husband walking in front, head held high, with a mission accomplished attitude, wife followed with the baby clinging on to her. The security looked amusedly at the lathi which was now broken in two and the man in rags was limping away, still wimpering, the damage had been done. For a few seconds neither of us could talk, we felt ashamed, of ourselves for being so dumb and selfish that we couldnt stop that man, ashamed of such fellow 'brothers' who have taken the teachings of our Lord to 'such' heights where retaliation has taken the place of love and forgiveness, ashamed that we are far away from our Master, who cried out even in His moment of greatest agony, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing", while nailed to the cross half-naked, spat upon by the guards, his flesh hanging on to his bones, bleeding, punished, for the 'crime' of revealing His identity. Wonder when we ever will know the true meaning of being 'crucified' with Christ and being hidden in Him.