The Disabled Fox
from "The Song Of The Bird" by Anthony de Mello, SJ
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and wondered how it
lived. Then he saw a tiger come in with game in its mouth. The tiger had its full and
left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day God fed the fox by the means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder
at God's greatness and said to himself, "I too shall just rest in a corner with full
trust in the Lord and he will provide me with all I need.
He did this for many days but nothing happened, and he was almost at death's door
when he heard a voice say, "O you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the
truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox."
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On the street I saw a naked child, hungry and shivering in the cold. I became
angry and said to God, "why do you permit this? Why don't you do something?"
For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly, "I certainly did
something. I made you."
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