Remember those stories that we had to read in literature way back in the day? I cannot remember the author or the title of the story. I cannot tell you whether or not I was in junior high or high school when I read the story. What I can tell you is that I never forgot the basic premise of that written work.
Two men had an
argument over what a man truly needed to live. After a rather lively debate, the one man bet the other man a large sum of money that one could not live without contact with another human being. The other man said he would take that bet and it was decided that he would live in a room for five years without contact with the outside world. Physical essentials would be brought to him and left outside his door. He could ask for things via notes, but otherwise would live in seclusion for the ensuing five years.
The man in seclusion decided he could read
many books to pass the time. The first year he read many works of fiction, the next biographies. At the end of five years, the bet was increased to twenty years for an even larger sum of money. Now the man started to read Greek classics, then
poetry, and graduated to serious forms of literature. Then one day, he started to read the Bible. After devouring its contents, he read any religious work that was available.
The evening before the bet would be over, the once
wealthy man who insisted that no one could live without the world, had fallen on hard times. He could not even begin to pay the man in seclusion what he had
earned those past twenty years. He felt he had no choice but to sneak into the house and kill his
adversary. Late that night, he opened the door to the room where his friend had stayed for twenty years, held a rock over his head,and prepared to bash in his skull to relieve him from his promise. He hesitated, as his friend had fallen asleep at his table while constructing a letter. The letter alluded to the fact that his friend, while spending all of his time reading the books of the Bible and other works, had finally understood what held meaning in his life. He would walk out of the house one minute before six o'clock the next morning, forfeiting the right to his winnings. The once
wealthy man cried a few tears, put down the rock and left the room. True to his word, the man left one minute before the bet would be collected and
disappeared from the town.
Even as a
youngster, I understood what the man had done, but still felt sorry for him. What he had missed!! Marrying, having a family, traveling, partying with friends. He must have hated missing out on life?! Yet, as the years have gone by, I understand that all those things I thought he had missed, were meant to lead him where the Bible had led him anyway. Peace, contentment
and the joy of being in the
Father's presence. I have thought of that story recently on my walks, and wondered where the man had gone after that? Did he become a hermit? Did he travel to the places he had read about? Did he seek out others to help? Where does one go when he becomes truly enlightened?
During today's homily, the deacon said that to repent, we do not merely say we are sorry, but that repenting is turning toward God and away from the world. The man in the story turned away from the world, found God, and then went back into the world. Makes us all want to "Go to Our Room?"
