A young lady who opened the door looked compassionately upon him and offered him a glass of milk instead. This boy, named Howard Kelly, left the house with much gratitude in his heart.

Years later, this young woman became critically ill. She was admitted to a city hospital and specialists were called in to study her rare disease.

A well known doctor was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from he began to recall something. He went straight to her ward and recognised her at once but said nothing. He went back to the consultation room and determined to do his best to save her life.  

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr Kelly requested the accounts department to pass the final billing to him for approval.

He looked at it with memories gushing to his mind. He wrote something across the bill and sent it to her. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. But tears welled up in her eyes when she read the words in bold letters: ‘Paid in full with one glass of milk’ and signed his name as Dr Howard Kelly.

Jesus was amply clear when he said, “If any of you give even a glass of water in my
name, you will certainly be rewarded” (Mark 9:41). What Jesus meant was, if you want to claim to be my disciples, you must learn to practise kindness and charity.  A reward for a glass of water indicates that God will reward us even for the smallest act of charity and kindness. Jesus also said, "The person who has two coats must share with the one who doesn't have any, and the person who has food must do the same."(Luke 3:11)

There may be times when we fail to appreciate the wealth God has blessed us with and so become very stingy and miserly. The money we drop into the offertory box or what we give in charity can sometimes be so negligible when compared to what God has blessed us with. We sometimes think of a hundred rupee note as too small when it enters a departmental store, but too big when we have to give it away in charity to a poor person.     

St Paul reminds us that our faith is futile if it is not expressed in acts of charity and kindness. “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14)