Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church

The story of a Father, his Son and their Donkey

   A father and a son were traveling with their donkey. The father was sitting on the donkey and the son was leading the donkey by the bridle. Unexpectedly, they heard one passerby say to the other, “Look at the poor little lad. His small legs barely keep up with the donkey. The cruel father has no pity.” The father took these words to heart. He got off the donkey, and traded places with his son.       Not much time went by when they met other passerby, who pointed to them shook their heads, “What a disgrace! The child is riding like a sultan, while the poor father has to run behind him.” The boy felt bad and asked his father to sit behind him.

   Then a woman spoke up and said, “Look at how they are tormenting the poor animal! The donkeys’ back is fully strained and the lazy father and son are sitting on it like kings.” So both the father and son jumped off the donkey, and sadly walked behind the animal.

   As they came around the bend, they again met with passersby, who started laughing and said, “Why isn’t your donkey doing anything? It is totally useless. It isn’t even carrying one of you.” The father sighed, fed straw to the donkey, and said to the son, “No matter what we decide to do, there will always be someone who will not agree with us. It looks like we alone should decide how we should travel.”

   The same applies to all of us. We alone have to decide every step that we take in our life’s journey. We have to ignore the criticisms that come our way, since we will never satisfy everyone in this world.

Ultimately, once we finish our life's journey, we will answer to God and will not need to explain anything to anyone!