Family Mass Year A
December 2007
A children’s liturgy teacher had spent some time telling her charges what they must do to get into heaven. She decided to end by asking them questions and see what they had understood.
“If I sold my house and my car and gave the money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” she asked. “No!” the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the grass, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into heaven?” Again the answer was, “no?”
“Well then if I was kind to animals and gave sweets to all the children, would that get me into heaven?” Once more they all answered, “no.”
“Well,” she continued, thinking that they were a good bit more theologically sophisticated than she had given them credit for, “then how can I get into heaven?” A five year old boy shouted out, “You must be dead!”
A Sunday school teacher told a class of young children the Christmas story of the shepherds and the Wise Men, like we have heard just now from these children here. At the end she asked them: “Who do you think was the first to know about the birth of Jesus?” A girl’s hand shot up: “Mary,” she answered.
If you hadn’t come here this evening with your children you would have missed those two stories. Do you think that you and your children might be missing something at the times you do not come?