This week was the Gospel about the first being last and the last being first. I always smile when I hear it because it reminds me of a story my cousin told me.
Each morning my cousin’s young daughter would race outside after waking up for school and place her backpack on the street corner. Many mornings other children would’ve beaten her there and placed their backpack on the corner making them first in line for the bus. So each morning the girl would ask to be awoken a little earlier. I guess it was a contest for prime seating or something.
Her grandmother (my aunt) was staying over the house and asked her why she ran outside and dropped off her backpack and the young girl told her about how important it was to be first at the bus stop.
Her grandmother asked her, “Didn’t you ever hear that the first shall be last and the last shall be first?”
The young girl looked at her grandmother and said, “Not at my bus stop.”
September 22, 2009 at 2:08 pm
My son has ADHD, but when he was about five we didn't know it — we thought he was just impossible to control at church no matter what we did. So imagine our surprise when, a couple of days after he seemed to be wriggling all over the pew and paying no attention at all, he said "Mom, Father Hater was wrong." About what? "He said that Jesus wants us to forgive our enemies." Which was, indeed, what the homily had been about. Mom: Yes, we are supposed to forgive our enemies. Son: "Not me!"