One night, a woman was waiting for her flight at the airport.  To pass the time, she bought a book and a bag of cookies from the airport shops.  As she was absorbed in the book, she noticed that the man sitting next to her took a cookie from her bag.  Not wanting to make a big deal, she tried to ignore it.  But each time she took one cookie, the man would boldly do the same.  Irritated, she thought to herself, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would have given him a black eye.”

This went on until only one cookie was left in the bag.  “Now,” she wondered, “what would this cookie thief do?”  With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, the man took the last cookie and broke it in half.  He offered her one half and ate the other.  She snatched it from him, furious about his rudeness and audacity.

 When her flight was called, the woman boarded the plane with relief, refusing to even look back at the gusty, ungrateful cookie thief.  After settling into her seat, she decided to finish reading her book.  As she reached into her bag, she gasped.  There, in front of her eyes, was her full bag of cookies!  As it turned out, she was the rude and ungrateful cookie thief.

Dear Agathians:

When Bishop DiMarzio put me in charge of the Chinese Ministry in Brooklyn, some Chinese priests and parishioners thought I was stealing the position from a more deserving Chinese priest.  They were upset instead of being grateful for a non-Chinese priest who love them so much that he went to their country to learn their language and dedicated his whole life to serving them.

When I was made pastor of our parish, some Spanish parishioners thought the bishop was stealing our parish away from them to give to the Chinese.  They were offended instead of remembering that our parish has been shared with them by the Italian, Irish, Norwegian, and American parishioners who built our church.

When I initiated some reforms in our parish, many parishioners considered those reforms an affront to their routine and customs.  In their anger, they failed to be grateful that they were allowed to enjoy certain exceptions for so long, and that we finally do things the correct way.

When I started some renovations for our parish’s buildings, all of our parish groups were affected.  Yet, some groups still think that I stole their meeting or storage space.  They are too selfish to see that these changes will benefit everyone in our parish.

The story of the cookie thief reminds us that when we jump to conclusions based on subjective assumptions, we can easily miss the big picture.  Instead of being grateful for the benefits that we all can enjoy, we often blame others for the little inconveniences that we have to endure.  As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, let us adopt a more grateful attitude, so that our selfishness won’t steal the cookies of joy from our parish’s bag.

— Fr. Vincentius Do, Pastor