Remember when you used to be afraid of the dark and you were told that there was nothing in the dark that was not there in the light, well . . . 
we were wrong!

  Some say there is no such thing as a "bad" boy or girl, only children who do bad things.  Maybe, but maybe not?  For the sake of our story, let us say that Johnny was a bad boy.  No he didn't kill anyone.  He was too smart to touch drugs or alcohol.  And he rarely used nasty words; but, he was a bad boy all the same.  He would rush to do his homework at breakfast or on the bus to school.  Many times his parents had to remind him to be faithful to household chores.  But worst of all, come Sunday morning, he did not want to go to church.
     "Come on, Johnny," said his mother, "you should be dressed and yet you haven't even showered!"
     "Oh mom," he said, "do I have to go?  Church is sooo boring, all the priest does is talk and talk and talk."
     "Now listen here young man," she responded, "you know full well that Mass is a lot more than talk.  You go to church to worship God."
     Shrugging his shoulders and heading to the bathroom, he answered back, "Forget it, I'm not going to win this argument, I can tell that already," and then, under his breath, "I get nothing out of it."
     "What did you say?" Mrs. Nagle asked.  "You look at me when we are talking about something serious."  His mom spinned him around, "Young man, as long as you are under our roof, you will go to church, and what's more, you will like it, hear me?"
     "Yes, mam," he answered, looking at the floor, "I hear you."
     They went to church and Johnny sat, stood, and knelt in all the right places.  But his mind was somewhere else.  Halloween was coming up and he was fantasing about all the candy he was going to get this year.  Yes, sir, it was sure going to be sweet.
     That is how Johnny was, thinking always about himself instead of considering others or even what was due God.  His younger sister loved Johnny very much, although he was frequently quite mean to her.  He found teasing her to be an irresistible temptation.
     One night, before retiring to bed, she entered his room and asked him, "Johnny, will you help me with my "Our Father" prayer, I keep messing it up."
     "Huh, I already said my prayers, go ask mom."
     "Oh, okay," she said disappointedly.
     A few moments later little Cathy and their mother entered the room.  "Johnny, I was helping Cathy with her prayers and she told me that you had already done yours."
     "Yeah," he said, "I did them a long time ago."
     "Like when?" she inquired, "you were watching television all evening.  You know I want you doing the rosary."
     "I did it, I just pray faster than you guys, listen," and then like a machine gun he rattled, "helmarfullgracethalordizwitdee . . . .That is how I always do it."
     "His mother stood there staring.  "What am I going to do with you?"  She shook her head and left.
     Halloween came and Johnny was all dressed in his skeleton custume.  He had calculated that if he ran he could triple the houses he reached the previous year.  It was a good thing his mother had consented to allow him to go without her usual escort.  "I'm too old for that now, the other guys will think I am a sissy."
    "Are you sure you don't want to walk with me and Cathy?" asked his mother.
     "Mom, pleeease," he begged, and raced out the door.
     It was a particularly dark Halloween evening.  While there are warnings every year about reflective clothing and large enough eye slits to see through, many outfits violate these safety rules for the sake of realism.  Johnny's outfit was just such one of these.  He panted as he ran from house to house.  He was going to set a record.  Down the block he went and into the next one.  He was coming around the turn when he met his undoing.
     Mrs. Nagle and her husband Ted were just becoming worried about Johnny's tardiness when there was a knock at the door.  She and Cathy had been back a good hour.  She leaped to answer the door.  She felt her world come crashing down when she saw who was there.
     "My name is Officer Bundy and I am sorry that I must bring some tragic news to you.  You have a son named John Jr.?"
     "Yes," she stuttered, "we do."
     "I am afraid he was in an accident tonight."
     "Oh no, oh no," she covered her face in her hands.
     "How bad is it?" asked his father, "what hospital is he in?"
     The officer paused, searching for words he knew would not suffice.  "He isn't in a hospital, he was hit by a car and died immediately from the head trauma."
     The next few days and weeks and months saw many tears.  The worst possible thing that could happen to parents had happened.  They had lost a child.
     Thanksgiving and Christmas that year would be drained of joy for the Nagle family.  Cathy prayed and prayed, all the time wondering if God heard the prayers of little girls.  One day, toward the end of November, she was playing on the front yard swing.  She looked up in the sky and thought, "I guess Johnny is somewhere up there in heaven."
     All of a sudden a cloud seem to take shape and she heard a voice.  It was the likeness and voice of Johnny.  "Cathy, Cathy, can you hear me."
     "I'm scared, are you a ghost?" she asked.
     "You can hear me, thank goodness!" he exclaimed.
     "Johnny it is you, it is you, let me get mommy!"
     "No, there is no time," he said, " and they would only see a cloud.  It is to you I have come."
     "Johnny, you look funny, there are red bumps on your face, like you got measles."
     "I do have measles, but not the kind you can get.  I made myself sick by my sins.  I did not love God as I should.  So I must suffer in purgatory.  It is like a hospital for sick souls.  My worst sins were not wanting to go to Mass and saying my prayers too fast."
     "Does it hurt, Johnny?" she asked with deep concern.
     "Yeah, but it is getting better," he said, "that is why I am talking to you, it gets better every time you pray for me."
     Cathy returned, "Then I will pray for you all the time, I will never stop praying for you."
     "You'll do that for me, Cathy, after all I failed to do for you and all the teasing?" he asked.
     "You're my brother, Johnny, I love you."
     "I love you too Cathy, I love you too."
     And with those words he faded from view and dear Cathy kept her promise.