"There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one
repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men
who have no need of repentance."

My father was a school teacher. He was never really
happy with that. He had hoped for more in life ­ a
sparkling career in what he thought was more a
glamorous profession and certainly a better paid one.
But, for many reasons, he did not succeed in his
chosen career and so he settled down reluctantly to be
a school teacher.

He was not a naturally gifted teacher. He was a shy
man and, although he cared deeply about his pupils, he
found it hard to communicate to them his love of
knowledge and his love of God. And he also found it
impossible to keep order in class. But one of the
compensations of his job was that, every few days or
so, some unknown man would run up to him in the
street, shake him by the hand and say "Sir, sir, do
you remember me?"
It was always some one of his pupils ­ often from 10
or 20 years ago ­ who remembered him with affection.
Sadly, the truthful answer to the question was always
"No". The intervening years had made little change to
my father's appearance, except perhaps making him a
little rounder, greyer and lighter on top. But they
had changed the boy into a man ­ completely
unrecognizable from how he had been as a school-boy.
But it always gave my father some consolation that, no
matter what difficulties he might have had at school
with a particular boy, when grown to man's estate, the
boy inside the man remembered him with affection.

But one day, it was different. A man came up to him in
the street, very slowly and hesitantly. Tentatively he
offered his hand to shake. And he asked very quietly,
"Sir do you remember me?"

For the first time, my father did: "Michael," he said
immediately. "Michael O'Connor."

Even I knew the name of Michael O'Connor ­ well, let
me be honest, the name has been changed to protect the
guilty. He had been the worst boy the school had ever
known. After a career of minor crime he had been
expelled. He had then got involved with the family
business which was smuggling illegal alcohol. From
there he graduated to smuggling drugs. And from there
he progressed to involvement with a terrorist
organisation that was at the time planting bombs in
England. And it was while he was in England that he
was caught by the police and imprisoned on a
relatively minor drugs charge. The police didn't know
about his more serious crimes.

And, while prison may or may not make a difference to
other people, it gave Kieron a chance to reflect on
the direction of his life. And what he saw ahead of
him was more of the same ­ a life of getting steadily
deeper and deeper into trouble.

And for some reason ­ just at that moment ­ he
remembered my father reading this passage of Scripture
in class. He said that the only reason that he
remembered it was that my father had read it very
badly, but that is why it had stuck in his memory. But
he also remembered what my father had said about it ­
you are never so far in that, with the love of God,
you cannot get back out. And he thought about that for
the several weeks that Her Majesty's government had
given him leisure. And he came out a genuinely changed
man. And he told my father that his reading that
Scripture passage badly in class had saved his life.

That evening, after dinner, my father turned to my
mother and said, "You know, for once in my life, I'm
glad I became a teacher."

I think that is why Jesus says that "There will be
more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner
than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of
repentance."

Let us stand and profess our Faith in God who rejoices
over our repentances.

Mount Street Jesuit Centre,
114 Mount Street,
London SW1K 3AH.
ENGLAND.
fatbaldnproud@yahoo.co.uk