Selfishness Clarified

There are many times when we are all selfish to one degree or another. We think only of ourselves and our own needs. But before you start feeling guilty, let me put being truly selfish into perspective. I wanted to share a story I read in my church bulletin as a kid. It must have had a profound effect on me because I have not forgotten it. The story is not word for word except the important key points: There was a rich woman who had everything she ever wanted and then some. She was consumed with her own wealth and comfort and never did anything to help a single person with all that she had to share. One night the doorbell rang. She went to the door to find a beggar standing outside in the cold. She looked at the beggar in disgust wondering what she wanted. The beggar pleaded for anything she had to eat. She was willing to take any scrap she could give her. The rich woman looked at her in disgust as if she was being inconvenienced and said "here, you can have this onion" and sent to the woman away. Years later the rich woman died and found herself in hell. She began complaining and yelling to St. Peter "there has been a terrible mistake, I don't belong here, you gotta get me out of here!" St. Peter informed her that she had been a wealthy woman and had done nothing to help the poor. "Name one thing you did to feed the poor" he told the lady. Thinking back she said "Hey I once gave an onion to a beggar who knocked on my door." St. Peter said "you are correct, I had forgotten about that, maybe we have made a mistake." So Peter grabbed a large onion from Heaven and dropped it into hell and told the lady "here!.. grab onto this onion and I will pull you up!" The woman looking pompous and proud grabbed the onion and St. Peter began to pull her up. As she was being pulled toward Heaven she noticed two people grabbing onto her, and then two more grabbed onto them and two more grabbed onto them. The woman yelled loudly "hey get off!.. this is MY onion!" to which St. Peter let go of the onion and all fell back into the flames. Can you find the moral to this story? I think this is a profound explanation of what a truly selfish person acts like and one who totally disregards the needs and feelings of others. Just thought I would share that today. God Bless!