Quickies: A Tragedy Of Sorts

     This one comes by way of the celebrant at this morning’s Mass:

     Three Jewish couples had made it a practice to have breakfast with one another after Saturday synagogue, to share their faith and keep in touch with one another. As it happens, a year earlier all three had sent their eldest sons to Israel to study for the rabbinate. On the day of our story, their conversation was strangely subdued.

     After a few minutes had passed, one couple announced without preliminary that they had just learned that their son in Israel had met a Catholic priest, had been baptized, and was now a Catholic. The other couples immediately became alert. In turn, they admitted that the same thing had happed to their sons, and that they too had found out that very morning.

     The coincidence of these three tragic events was too striking to comprehend, so they took it to their rabbi. After hearing the three, strangely similar stories, he said to them, “Join me in prayer, that we might ask God for an explanation of these tragedies.” So they knelt, and joined hands, and the rabbi intoned for them, “O Master of the World, my friends have all suffered identically: all three of their sons, whom they sent to Israel, have been baptized and are now Christians! Please, Lord of us all, if it is Your will, explain to them, and to me, why this has happened.” And having so spoken, he bowed his head.

     Whereupon the clouds above them parted, and the heavens gave forth with a voice of thunder:

     “What do you think happened to My Son?”

     (tee hee)