When on vacation at the shore, each morning I offer the Holy Mass in the house. I create an altar on a desk by using a cloth that I received long ago from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

It contains relics (I don’t know what relics) and is decorated with images of Our Lord in death surrounded by the apostles. There are words in Old Slavonic on it but I do not understand them. The cloth is called an “antemensium” and in the old days it was, and still is, a portable altar.

At any rate, people know I offer Mass each day so I always have a congregation.

One day, two women came to be present because they had been attending Mass at a local chapel. They were upset because the priest, in giving a series of homilies, had told them, in effect, that the Gospels were written long after the death of Our Lord. The Gospels were greatly influenced by rumor and legend.

On top of that the evangelists had added whatever they wished. Therefore, much of what we believe is not necessarily true.

These ladies desired to attend Mass where they could feel “Catholic” again so they came to our house.

I told them the following in order to reinforce their belief in the Gospels.

I was born in 1929. In 1934 when I was five my cousin, who was nicknamed “Snookie”—a boy of six years—died. I clearly remember every incident of the time.

I remember the police coming to the door in the evening to tell my mother and father. I remember them saying that Snookie had bought a box of Cracker Jack. Every box of Cracker Jack in those days had a prize in it.

The prize in his box was a thin tin whistle. He had swallowed the whistle. It lodged in his lung.

I remember the talk about the activity in town. Every box of Cracker Jack was impounded. I remember the news about the failed attempt to get the whistle out of the boy’s lung.

I remember the news of his death. I remember the wake. I remember his body. I remember the mourners. I remember being shunted off to Johnny Osulak’s house to be minded during the wake.

I remember the funeral. I remember the gravesite and the burial. (I still visit the grave.) I remember his mother, Delia, and his brother. It is all etched in my brain.

Now, if the four Gospels were written as they say in about 65, 80, 85 and 90, and if someone had been born in 29 A.D., do you think that, if that person had witnessed Jesus perform a miracle, such as raising someone from the dead, he or she could have forgotten? Or if someone had said that Jesus worked a miracle and it was false, do you think that people would have bought a lie?

No, if I can clearly remember 1934, then the people from the time of Jesus would have clearly remembered the events of 29 – 33 A.D. And there would have been many, many people around when the Gospels were written. You could not have deceived them.

The opponents of Jesus, especially, would have decried the false events.

So, my friends, trust the Gospels. The Jews of Israel were as smart and common-sensical then as they are now. They could never have swallowed a fairy tale. The Gospels are basically true. Yes, they have been formed and shaped. But trust me, no one could have invented the life of Jesus.

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