ST CALLISTUS

Alas for you lawyers.
Because you load on men burdens that are unendurable.
Well I’m one of those barristers.
Are our actions so unconscionable.

St Callistus was a failed banker, broke it seemed.
A slave imprisoned, cast overboard.
But he taught that repentant sinners can be redeemed.
Slip, sin, but you should not be put to the sword.

Was Peter and his successors given power to bind and loose.
Yes, emphatically, that was a power not just given to him but his successors.
As long as repentance is honest and not a ruse.
Angels not men should act as our assessors.

All of us sinners owe a lot to St Callistus’ sentimentality.
A life lost temporarily can be regained permanently.