The kids in this parish pay attention in Mass at the worst moments.
The valiant, lone altar-server of today's early morning Mass actually listened to the Gospel reading. She grilled me afterwards in the sacristy."Why did Jesus tell them to pick up snakes and drink poison?"
He didn't actually tell them to, he said that if they did they would not be harmed.
"But why would anyone pick up snakes or drink poison?"
Well, I guess Jesus had figured out by then that his apostles weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer and he wanted to take precautions.
<blink, blink>
Just playing. What I really think is that he was reasserting the radical nature of the change brought about in the human condition because of his resurrection: the primacy of life over death, spirit over matter, hope over despair, good over evil...
<blink, blink>
Aren't you supposed to be in school by now?
