VANITY OF MODERN DAY RELATIONSHIPS        

(CONT… FROM PREVIOUS POST)

Further to what I have written in the previous post, I came across a few of anecdotes said by Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Valiya Metropolitan – as quoted by Alex Thekken-nattil (in Mar Chrysostathinte Navathi Pinnitta Narmangal).

Mr. Alex went to Poolatheen, the Metropolitan’s residence, for an interview. The Metropolitan started with the narration of the trend of burial in the Christian families.  

“In the yester years, when one person is dead, we could see the children, grand children and the relatives gather around the body and sing songs and read bible portions. We could also see some of them sob at times.

Now a days we do not see this. There is no time for the children and grand children to do it. The machine (c.d. players and key-boards) takes their place and do it efficiently. In the death of a person, it is the machine that cry. It even makes the hearers cry.”

Another story: “A husband and wife from United States were always in disagreement and were fighting.  As the days went by the intensity of difference of opinion also grew.  One of their friends advised them to visit the Holy Land to settle the matter through prayer and penance and they went.  

On the second day of the visit the wife died.  The undertaker was called and they said, “If the body is to be taken to U.S.A. the expense shall be $5000; but if buried in Israel, it shall be $150”.

The husband told that the body shall be taken to U.S.A in spite of the heavy expense, the reason being: “I have heard that someone was buried here and he rose after three days. I don’t want to take the risk…”