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  Wednesday – 21 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel - Matthew 23:27-32 Whitewashed Tombs Mount of Olives Cemetery, along Palm Sunday Road   There’s a story about a preacher who was accused of not practicing what he preached.   He responded; “Well, at least I don’t preach what I practice.”   Hypocrite!   It comes from a Greek word for “actor”, someone who put on a show for others.   Someone who acts a part and pretends to be good just for admiration and applause!   If you thought Jesus was blunt in yesterday’s Gospel, today goes way beyond!   The Pharisees and Scribes are like whitewashed tombs with only dead men’s bones and filth inside.   The Jews believed that contact with the dead automatically made you unclean; so the tombs were painted white to warn the people away, to prevent them from touching the stones.   So the Pharisees only appear righteous but they are ultimately only concerned with themselves!   But why such ...
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  Tuesday – 21 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel - Matthew 23:23-26 Rotten on the Inside Spice Market, Jerusalem We haven’t had much luck with growing zucchini this year.   While the planst grow healthily for a while, then we are inundated with these little grubs (squash vine borers), and they end up rotting the crop from the outside.   Generally, we can see the rot coming but there are also plenty of times when the zucchini rots from the inside out and the problem is you don’t see it coming until you cut it open.   And then you have to just throw it  In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses extremely harsh language for the Pharisees and Scribes for being so clean and perfect on the outside, but utterly rotten within.   He chastises them for being so concerned about collecting tithes on herbs like cumin and dill and yet not caring at all about the welfare of the people.   The Law demanded that the people contribute 10% of all of their produce and crops to ...
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  Monday – Feast of St. Bartholomew Gospel - John 1: 45-51 The Journey of Faith Church of Dormition, Jerusalem   I don’t know about you but I am not a fan of walking into new situations or meeting people for the first time; I feel awkward and quite a bit tongue-tied, wondering what to talk about and how they will react to me.   It takes me a while to warm up to them and feel comfortable. Yeah, I know what you’re going to say – you’re a teacher, you’re used to getting up in front of a crowd of strangers, most of them unimpressed, and trying to grab their attention.   But this is different; one on one is more direct, nowhere to hide. We celebrate today the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve.   Most Scripture scholars identify him as the Nathaniel we read about in today’s Gospel, the brother of Philip. We see in this Gospel his first encounter with Jesus.   And while there is that first-time awkwardness, he quickly warms up to Jesus and even...
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