Any day of the week, at half-past ten,
you could stand outside any church in town
and watch the faithful trickling out,
with the calm and inward look of those
who knew in their hearts, without any doubt,
that they had, once again, added to their store
yet another infinity of merit.
The arithmetic of infinity
was not like the other,
that we learned at school,
but it had a logic all its own,
and was easy to work with,
once you knew the rules.
The small print, however, could catch you out.
Did you know that, without the proper disposition
-- a complete aversion from all sin --
a Hail Mary might only get you
nine or ten thousand years years off purgatory,
instead of a full remission?
Do you know what complete aversion means?
Complete aversion is pretty rare.
In all of history, there were only two cases,
and there is no prize for guessing who they were.
Between this, and other little snags I won't mention,
you might have done better, on the whole,
hoping for time off for good behavious,
or a chance of making heaven on parole.
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