A savior for the Savior

I have been the sacristan at St. Gerald Parish in Ralston for the past nine years. I have always brought my grandsons with me when I have had jobs to do at the parish’s church in Omaha. Pretty much, wherever I go they go. My grandma did the same with me.

Sometime during Lent eight years ago, I was at the main altar preparing for the Sunday Mass. I had my grandson Owen with me, who was 3 at the time. At St. Gerald, we change the crucifix during Lent to the suffering Jesus. Owen was struck by seeing the suffering Jesus when he was at the altar helping me.

"Grandma, why is Jesus beat up and bloody?" he asked. I told him, that was how Jesus looked when he died on the cross.

"But Grandma, why didn’t anyone save him?"

I replied that unfortunately and fortunately that was all a part of God’s plan and that Jesus died on the cross for us.

"But, Grandma, why did they just leave him there like that?"

I struggled to try to tell him again in different words that he would understand. Finally I just said, even though Jesus died, it was what God wanted for us. Again Owen asked, "But why didn’t SOMEONE SAVE HIM?"

Owen was really starting to get upset. I looked over at him and he was standing there with his arms crossed, tapping his foot on the ground and shaking his head. I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. Finally, Owen, with much more understanding about the situation, looks straight up me and then turns back to Jesus and says "Spiderman would have saved him!!!!"

All I could say was yes, I am sure that he would have.