Friday, 5/13/16
In the Gospel Jesus spoke of the death by which Peter would
glorify God. His telling Peter about that might make you wonder about what kind
of death might be waiting for you.
That is something we don’t talk about, or even think about.
We’d just rather not let the matter come up. But if my memory is right, in our
grandparents’ time such thinking about their deaths was an accepted part of
everyone’s religious training.
That thought suddenly has me remembering a story my mother told
about her grandparents. Her grandmother had been a Gleason, and her grandfather
a Kelly; and they had been married in Tipporary before coming to America in
1855.
My great-grandfather, Dan Kelly, made enough as a bricklayer
to support three sons and three daughters. In his old age, he spent his time lounging
on a bench in front of their house.
Great-grandfather Kelly’s feet were smaller than his wife’s
feet, and he’d spend hours in their front yard admiring his little feet. That
would bring our great-grandmother to complain, “Look at him out there admiring
his feet, when he should be thinking of dying and going to heaven.”
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