There was once a man who owned a beautiful orchard of orange trees. He looked after his orchard with great care, and soon was able to sow what he had worked so hard for. From his harvest, he produced the most exquisite juice available and everyone was willing to pay to drink it. As time passed, the demand for his juice grew and the man was forced to plant more trees in his orchard, and his business grew tremendously.
After some time, the soil in his orchard could not sustain the trees because it needed rest to rebuild its nutrients. Soon his harvest began to decline and his debts began to increase so the man increased the price of his juice. Even though his juice was delicious, people would no longer pay his price, and the man's sales began to decline. He realized that he needed good and fertile land to rotate his planting and allow the land time to rest, but he didn't have enough money to buy other parcels of land.
Just when all seemed lost, a neighbor who owned a large fertile parcel of land offered it to him in exchange for a part of the harvest. The man refused. He was not willing to share the success of his juice with anyone. The neighbor then offered his parcel to another orange grower who accepted the offer. In time, the first grower's orchard's died and he was left in debt and despair. The second grower, however, prospered and enjoyed great success.
The first grower represents those persons who live a life rooted in selfishness. They refuse to give even the slightest thing that may benefit others, even if their giving would be of mutual benefit. The second grower represents those persons who are always willing to share so that everyone may benefit. To which group do I belong?
Too often we convince ourselves that we are not selfish because our lives are full of so called "sacrifices". We "sacrifice" so we can study and attain a profession, or we sacrifice for our job allowing our boss or customers to belittle us for the sake of our future pay check. We sacrifice for our children or grandchildren. All these truly are sacrifices, but personal and selfish sacrifices because the only one who benefits is we. In reality, we are only doing what our lives require us to do.
To raise children is really not a sacrifice at all - it's an obligation! It was our decision and our actions that brought them into this world. An education is also not a true sacrifice for anyone who desires to work in a particular profession; and our job is our means for providing for our needs. It is true that others also benefit from these things, but in reality this is only a secondary effect, since the true beneficiary of our "sacrifice" is we.
What then is a true sacrifice? Jesus tells us that if we are to follow him, we must deny ourselves and carry our own cross. A true sacrifice then is one that is done for the sole purpose of pleasing another. To sacrifice is to give ourselves totally without expecting anything in return. Just knowing that we are pleasing another or that we are denying our self for the good of another should be enough. A mother who denies herself a particular food or drink that she likes because it could be harmful for her lactating baby; or the father who, even though he may be exhausted from work, still takes time to play or talk with his children; or the person who denies themselves a pleasurable activity in order to help the needy are all examples of true sacrifice.
If our actions resemble those of the first grower, then we are not living the words of Christ. Instead, our selfishness could lead us to poke out one of our own eyes if it could lead to our enemy being blind. Only those who share, those who give, those who strive to help others - only those who put themselves in second place and give priority to others truly live the Gospel. This, however, can only be done if we destroy the selfishness that lives inside and follow in Jesus' footsteps.
This is not an easy thing to do, in fact, some even consider this to be impossible because of our human condition. But, with God nothing is impossible! Only with God's help can we win the battle over our ego. Throughout history there have been men and women who have accomplished this very thing. These are the heroes of the Church - those we call saints. They lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are examples of faith for all of us, even though many of them also suffered from the very things we do, our selfishness, anger, and envy. They, however, truly made sacrifices and with God's assistance overcame these things. They gave themselves up entirely and unconditionally to God and lived in and through his covenant - a covenant that lives and breaths love, and love is giving oneself entirely for another.