<p>The prince of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Happy Prince is the gilded statue of a royal personage.</p>.<p>Since we are in the realm of fanciful fiction, he sheds tears at the sight of human misery, sharing his sorrow with a swallow he befriends. The prince does not merely sob over suffering but seeks to alleviate poverty. Urging the swallow to pluck out the priceless gems that adorn him, he tells the bird to take them to people who are sick and starving.</p>.<p>Finally, bit by bit, the prince relinquishes the gold that covers his body, until he is completely denuded.</p>.<p>After reading The Happy Prince to my grand-nephew Gabriel, I dwelt on the moral angle. I asked him if he was ready to give up his treasured possessions for the good of others. “Certainly not,” the 12-year-old replied promptly.</p>.<p>When I said that he had missed the point of the story, which is that selflessness brings happiness, Gabriel told me to put myself in the prince’s place. Would I, he demanded, surrender sapphires if they were (as they are in the case of the prince) my eyes. I admitted that not only would I never do anything so drastic but that I would also cling fast to the ruby, which the prince gets removed from his sword hilt. I might, I added as an afterthought, part with a piece of my pedestal, if by so doing I was not inconvenienced.</p>.<p>This is definitely not the kind of giving that St Ignatius of Loyola embraced.</p>.<p>In a beautiful prayer that has come down to us through the years, the 16th-century priest and theologian asks to be able to serve God with a generosity worthy of the Almighty.</p>.<p>He longs to labour, regardless of reward, and yearns “to give and not to count the cost”.</p>.<p>During this season of Lent, culminating in the commemoration of the great Good Friday sacrifice, Christians practise various forms of self-denial. Many forgo their favourite foods and pleasurable pastimes. Easier to do, perhaps, than to obey the categorical command of Jesus Christ: “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”</p>
<p>The prince of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Happy Prince is the gilded statue of a royal personage.</p>.<p>Since we are in the realm of fanciful fiction, he sheds tears at the sight of human misery, sharing his sorrow with a swallow he befriends. The prince does not merely sob over suffering but seeks to alleviate poverty. Urging the swallow to pluck out the priceless gems that adorn him, he tells the bird to take them to people who are sick and starving.</p>.<p>Finally, bit by bit, the prince relinquishes the gold that covers his body, until he is completely denuded.</p>.<p>After reading The Happy Prince to my grand-nephew Gabriel, I dwelt on the moral angle. I asked him if he was ready to give up his treasured possessions for the good of others. “Certainly not,” the 12-year-old replied promptly.</p>.<p>When I said that he had missed the point of the story, which is that selflessness brings happiness, Gabriel told me to put myself in the prince’s place. Would I, he demanded, surrender sapphires if they were (as they are in the case of the prince) my eyes. I admitted that not only would I never do anything so drastic but that I would also cling fast to the ruby, which the prince gets removed from his sword hilt. I might, I added as an afterthought, part with a piece of my pedestal, if by so doing I was not inconvenienced.</p>.<p>This is definitely not the kind of giving that St Ignatius of Loyola embraced.</p>.<p>In a beautiful prayer that has come down to us through the years, the 16th-century priest and theologian asks to be able to serve God with a generosity worthy of the Almighty.</p>.<p>He longs to labour, regardless of reward, and yearns “to give and not to count the cost”.</p>.<p>During this season of Lent, culminating in the commemoration of the great Good Friday sacrifice, Christians practise various forms of self-denial. Many forgo their favourite foods and pleasurable pastimes. Easier to do, perhaps, than to obey the categorical command of Jesus Christ: “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”</p>