[The following is a story for our Children's Mass - Today - the 26 Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B]

THE  DOMINO  EFFECT 

Four old men were just sitting there in a big, big room in a nursing home.

It was around 4 PM on a Monday afternoon.  There were no football games on the big TV in the corner. There visitors were there on Sunday - so they were just sitting there remembering.

Three men were at another table playing dominoes. They were laughing and talking and enjoying the game.

Five ladies were on the other side of the room knitting and talking and adjusting their hearing aids - trying to hear each other and the guys on the other side of the room.

One of the four old men just sitting there - watching and thinking about the 3 old men playing dominoes asked, “When did you first learn about the Domino Effect?”

The other 3 men also adjusted their hearing aids and asked, “What did you just say?”

“When did you first learn about the Domino Effect?”

“Oh,” said one of the four. “I noticed it when I was 12 years old. I was at a baseball game - the Baltimore Orioles against the Boston Red Sox. Carl Yastrimski of the Red Sox hit a home run and my little brother tried to catch it, but missed. An old man in front of him - probably about 40 years old - caught it - and seeing my brother’s disappointment - gave him the ball.

“Hey, kid, here’s the ball,” he said.

“Well, my brother,” the told the other 3 old men, “didn’t see anything that happened for the rest of the game. He just stared at that baseball. He was making out he was throwing it - curve - fast ball - knuckle ball.”

“In the car on the way home, he had the greatest smile in the world. In fact, that’s the first time I ever saw him smile. He was a whiner.”

“In fact, come to think about it. I don’t think he ever whined for the rest of his life.”

“Come to think about it, that changed my life as well.”

“Thinking about the man - the fan who caught that ball - and how he gave it to my brother right away - that changed me as well. I learned to be nice to people - and I’d see how they then were nice to people and then they too were nice to people.”

“Come to think about it - looking back after all these years, I bet that guy who gave my brother the baseball -  never knew the effect of doing that had on others.”

One of the 3 old men asked, “What happened to the baseball?”

“Oh,” he said, “my brother has it in a plastic case and it was on his bookcase till he died. His son has it now - because he heard his dad tell a hundred people how some guy when he was eight years old caught that ball at old Orioles field - Memorial Stadium - and he gave it to him.”

Then he concluded, “I guess that’s when I learned about The Domino Effect.”

The second guy said I learned about the Domino Effect from our dog.  Whenever he woke up, everybody woke up.

He would bark if he heard the paperboy toss the paper up on our porch.

That would wake my mom up - who would wake my dad up - and we would hear them talking or the toilet flushing - and we would all wake up.

At work if the boss was in a good mood, I noticed everyone would be in a good mood - but if he was grouchy - others would react and be grouchy. Same too with people beeping their horns in morning traffic.

The third guy said, “Oh - I guess I noticed it when I was in school. If the teacher was in a good mood, we’d all be in a good mood. If she got mad at some kid that kid would take it out on some other kid and on and on and on.

“I guess bullies cause the most problems. Hitting - pushing - being selfish - name calling - would bounce all over the school playground.”

“Of course, I didn’t notice that till I was in the Navy - on a submarine.  If someone was in a bad mood - everyone got the after effect of  it every time.”

“But once we got a Captain - who was the happiest person I ever met in my life. When he came on board, I noticed that laughter on our submarine improved 11 thousand percent - compared to the captain we had before him.

“So I guess that’s when I really learned about the Domino Effect.”

Then he added, “I heard this when I heard it called the Butterfly Effect.”

“What’s that?” the guy on his left said.

“Oh, it’s a theory that if a butterfly shakes his wings in China - it works its way all the way to California and beyond.”

There was still one guy who had spoken up.

So they finally asked him, “When did you first hear about the Domino Effect?”

He said, “I never heard about it. At first when you guys started talking I had no idea what you were talking about.”

Then he paused.

Then he said, “Now I know why everyone is so happy with this Pope Francis. He smiles and the whole crowd smiles.”

Then he paused  - seeing the other 3 guys smiling.

Then he said, “I guess that smile is going all around the world - all night long - and into today and into forever. Wow!