Sanitising Sacrifice

Good Friday, perhaps ,is a wonderful occasion to think seriously about what it means to sacrifice! Broadly speaking the innocuous word ‘sacrifice’ simply means an openness to give up something one considers as beautiful and significant personally and yet would go further to give it up for a greater need and good for the people around. Therefore sacrifice is something voluntary, and there is an element of foregoing what one considers beautiful, noble and even necessary to life. If this is what sacrifice is, then we may find only a few odd per centage of people who take joy and pride in indulging in sacrifice.

It would be easier for me to talk about sacrifice as I look at it, than what it means to other people. If I have to address this issue squarely, then I should reflect if I allow myself to sacrifice – to deprive me of some of the big and small pleasures of life, without grumbling or blaming anyone else! To be honest, there is a growing need in me to give in to my wants and desires, even if they are unlegitimate, and therefore I realize very few occasions when I can think I had given up something precious happily and joyfully.

But then what stops me from going beyond my own personal needs and wants, especially when I know for sure that my foregoing this particular want or need could benefit someone else immensely in the society. I do not do anything unconsciously and automatically. There is a deliberate intent issued by my inner self which is for the most part oriented towards ‘self-preservation’. This is another way of responding to Charles Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’. I want not only to survive, but I also wish to be the fittest, and therefore the attempt at self-preservation!

Then how much do I think about others, their needs and wants vis-à-vis my own? If there are so many people who are ready to give up something very precious and personal to them, so that I too may have a share in their joy and happiness, why is it I am not able to do that? It is not easy to consider how much others give up for my sake, and make my day, but looking objectively each of my joyful moment had been made possible thanks to some persons who were ready to let me have the better share of the cake, even without expecting me to do the same.

I know I am yet to begin my first lesson in salvaging my sense of sacrifice, and it may take quite a while for me to give up something precious to my personal life, without unduly holding on to it in the name of self-preservation. I recall to mind the golden words of the Savior who said, anyone who saves his life (of sacrifice) will lose it, and anyone who loses it for my sake, will save it! This paradox of faith and belief can fit into the notion of sacrifice, as it stares at me squarely into my eyes!