The Priest's Joke

        A couple of blog posts ago I mentioned that preachers often have a joke inserted into the sermon, and that reminded me of this story from long long ago.

         When I was very young and attending church with my Dad and brothers every Sunday, I remember the priest during the sermon one day talking about someone who had died and gone to heaven, and St. Peter was giving the Dearly Departed a tour; when they started to walk past a certain group of people who were having a heavenly good time, St. Peter told the new arrival “You have to be quiet when you see these folks, they are the Catholics, and they think they are the only ones here!”

         And the congregation laughed!

        That got my attention. 

         And I learned a few things that day – Catholics think they are the only ones going to heaven; Catholics can laugh at themselves; priests have a sense of humor; and once he got my attention with the joke, it was enough to get me to try and listen to the rest of the sermon too.

         What I have learned since then is that just about any denomination or religion thinks it is the only one going to heaven; and the priest's joke is the only thing I remember from all those Sundays of sermons when I was growing up.

248 20150905 The Priest's Joke