Athough I am a Christian, I'm not a Catholic. So I don't consider the Pope to be any more infallible than the next man. However, I do believe that this pope is, or was a godly man. In that respect, I do mourn his severe illness, and impending death. I know that he has no fear of death, but that he is only holding on to life in appreciation of the glorious gift from God that it is.
I don't have any personal memories of John Paul II. Other than that he has held that office for nearly my entire life. I do appreciate the great things that he did in helping to defeat the Soviet Union, and I just wish that I could have met him and had a chance to talk to him, man to man. I think that would have been a good conversation...
But anyways, because I know that soon he will be in Glory. I offer this little joke that came to mind. There is no disrespect inteded in any way. But whenever I saw, in the news, anything about the Pope, I always thought of this little story.
Two friends were arguing in a bar one day. Charlie, the first guy, was saying how he knew everybody! There wasn't a person that he hadn't met.Bob, even though he was his good friend, didn't believe him. "Charlie, you can't know everyone." He said. "I bet you don't know the Mayor."
Charlie said, "Sure I do." He pulls out his cell phone and dials a number. After a moment he said, "Hi, this is Charlie. Could you tell my friend Bob here who you are?"
He hands the phone to Bob. The voice on the phone was unmistakably the Mayor, who said to Bob, "How's my old friend Charlie treating you?" Bob is flabbergasted. He talks to the Mayor for a few moments before he handed the phone back.
"OK, you win that one. But I bet you don't know the President!" he challenged.
Charlie just grinned and dragged his friend out to the car. "We're going to DC." He said.
A few hours later, they pull up to the White House. The security guys had all waived Charlie through, but that hadn't impressed Bob. Just then, the President came out of the front door walking his dog. Charlie leaned out the window and waved. Then, to Bob's chagrin, the President walked right over to the car and talked with Charlie for a good fifteen minutes.
As they were driving away, Bob had to admit that Charlie was pretty well known. But he figured that maybe Charlie only knew people in the US. So he said, "I bet that you don't know the Pope!"
Charlie just grinned and drove to the airport. The next day, they were standing outside the Pope's residence. Charlie didn't think that he'd be able to get Bob in, since the security was so tight. But Bob agreed that if he saw the Pope and Charlie together in the Pope's window, then he would admit that Charlie knew everyone.
A short while later, Charlie walked out onto the balcony, arm in arm with the Pope. They waved to the crowds together, and Charlie looked down to find Bob. To his shock, Bob is lying, unconsious on the ground. He quickly rushed down to see what had happened to his friend.
"Are you alright?" He asked when Bob regained consiousness.
"Yeah. I'm OK." he replied. "But that was quite a shock."
"What? When you saw me up there with the Pope?" Charlie asked.
"No," said Bob. "What got me was when the guy standing next to me in the crowd said, 'Hey, who's that guy up there with Charlie?'"
I don't know why. But that joke always popped into my head whenever I saw anything about the Pope. And it always made me smile at least a little.
God Speed, Karol Wojtyla.
Posted by GEBIV at April 1, 2005 07:44 PMThat was a good one, it made me laugh.
Posted by: contagion at April 1, 2005 10:10 PM