Every Divinity School might well have in its senior
year, along with courses in systematic divinity and
homiletics, a course in the great masters of comedy;
and, to arouse our sluggish wits and keep us on our
guard, it might not be amiss to carve upon our pulpits,
side by side with the lean Gothic saints, the figure of
Aristophanes or Moliere with warning finger.

-- William Austin Smith, "The Use of the Comic
Spirit in Religion"

C HRIST and Saint Peter are the Abbott and Costello of
Sicilian folklore. Christ plays the arch and ironic straight man while
Peter is his easily perturbed stooge. In one tale Jesus instructs his
apostles to carry heavy stones from one village to another. Peter, a
lazy lout, only carries a pebble. When they arrive at their destination,
the apostles are famished. Jesus orders them to sit and transforms
their stones into bread. Peter, of course, is left only with a crumb.
He complains to Christ, but Jesus replies that the worker is worth
his wage. Peter mutters and sulks, and Jesus decides to play a trick
on him. The next day Christ again orders his apostles to carry stones.
Peter, remembering his humiliation and greedy for bread, carries a
boulder. He grunts and sweats but dreams vaingloriously of one-
upping the others. "This will be a loaf to end all loaves," he thinks.
When they arrive at the next village, however, Peter discovers that
there is a bakery in the piazza! Jesus, eyeing Peter, asks the others
to step inside and announces he will buy bread for them all. Peter is
too exhausted even to take a bite, and Jesus and the apostles burst
out laughing.

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