Still cringing

I want to tell a story a priest once shared over homily.

There was once a married couple who lived a happy and contented life. Every day, the couple would bet in the sweepstakes using only one number combination. They stayed faithful to their numbers. Every day, the husband would bet on the numbers after work before going home. On times when he would go out of town for business trips, the wife would make it a point to bet their number combinations. Like clockwork, the couple would bet that one number combination without fail even when they have not won since they started.

One day as the husband was away for a business trip, the wife received a call from a close friend.

“Mare, congratulations! I saw on the news that you won the grand prize in the sweepstakes!” exclaimed the friend on the phone. 

“What?” replied the wife and fell silent. 

The wife ended the phone right then and there. She was distraught, and the reason for that was that she forgot to bet their supposed winning number combination. She cried by herself in their home because she thought that she wasted an opportunity that was near impossible to come by. She hated herself for forgetting what her husband had so faithfully done. She feared her husband’s return and what he would do when he finds out everything that has happened.

She became depressed from thinking over and over again what she had and had not done. They could have been millionaires by now. In the end, she took her life that night. 

Unbeknownst to the wife, the phone call earlier was actually a prank call from a friend who knew how devotedly the couple has been betting on the numbers.

But no one knew that it would end this way.

It was a tragic tale that I was surprised to hear it during a mass with the majority of the listeners being young children. I literally cringed when the priest said that it was a prank call. It was such a morbid story that I forgot to listen for the moral of the story. I couldn’t care less for the rest of the priest’s homily. I couldn’t understand why he would tell us this anecdote during a mass celebrating the feast of the Holy Family.