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  Monday – 11 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Matthew 5:38-42 Hit Me, Baby, One More Time Walking the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem If we look back on our childhood, most of us will remember all the times we got into a fight, sometimes just verbal, sometimes out and out physical.   Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost.   Sometimes we came away bloodied and defeated; sometimes we gave as good as we got.   Through it all, we probably forgot why we were fighting in the first place, only the fight itself. But we do remember that, at the start, we had a choice.   We could either fight or run.   That was it; or so we thought! In today’s Gospel, we realize there really is a third option!   We hear the familiar words of Jesus to “turn the other cheek.”   I always pictured this scene as the height of cowardice, to just stand there and take it, to do nothing.   I saw this as utter passivity, cowardice.   But it’s not!   It is an act of de...
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  11 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel – Matthew 9:36 – 10:8 Answering the Call Basilica of the Annunciation If you’re like me, your cellphone is permanently attached at the hip and you never go anywhere without it.   It’s our calendar, our camera, our documents and apps; it’s our email lifeline to the world. But in all its complexity, it is still plain and simple - a phone.    And every day it presents us with choices/decisions –do we recognize the number, do we answer the phone! It’s a process we are all familiar with.   The phone rings; is the number familiar?   If it isn’t, I regularly ignore and decline the call.   If I recognize the number, then it’s more complicated.   I can choose to answer it or I can deliberately decide I don’t want to talk to this person.   A simple call but so many options! Aah, it was so much simpler decades ago. All we had was a landline, a home phone – no cells, no caller ID!   If the phone rang...
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  Saturday – 10 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Matthew 5: 33-37 Yes or No! St. Peter in Gallicantu (Cock Crowing) Church, Jerusalem Especially when we were little, we all had that experience of getting caught with our hands in the cookie jar or chocolate all over our face.   The broken vase is on the floor, and we are standing right there.   The wall is covered with child-like drawings, and the crayon is in our hand.   Caught red-handed!   And yet, when mom or dad asked, “did you do this”, we quickly answered “Nope, not me!”   Denial!   Complete and utter denial!   Nope, nope!   It must have been the wind (even though the windows are closed)! Why is it so hard to admit our sins?   Why is it so easy to be dishonest?   Even when the evidence is plain as day, we refuse to admit to our mistakes.   Jesus keeps it simple and direct in today’s Gospel: let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.   Be honest!   Be h...
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