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  26 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel – Matthew 21:28-3 2 Words and Actions Mass at Mt Tabor Bear with me; it’s rather long! The night janitor at Pinewood Elementary died last Tuesday. Heart attack in the hallway, 2 a.m., found by morning staff.   Stanley Okoye. 67 years old. Worked there nine years. Quiet man. Mopped floors, emptied trash, locked up.   Principal called an assembly to announce it. Expected maybe a moment of silence. Instead, forty kids started crying. Not polite tears. Gut-wrenching sobs. Teachers were confused. Most barely knew Stanley existed. Then a fifth-grader stood up. "Mr. Stanley taught me to read." The principal blinked. "What?"   "I was failing. Too embarrassed to ask for help. I'd hide in the library after school. Mr. Stanley found me one night. Asked what I was reading. I said nothing. He said 'Let's fix that.'"   Another kid stood. "He helped me with math. Every Wednesday. For two years." ...
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Saturday – 25 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 9:18-43-45 Pay Attention Mass at the Tomb, Church of Holy Sepulchre I can’t begin to count how many times as a teacher I needed to remind some of my students to PAY ATTENTION (or words to that effect)!   Sometimes it was a fruitless effort and it demanded constant repeating.   But sooner or later, they got the message.   I suppose the same can be said of a parent trying to teach a lesson to their child.   Jesus has some tough words to share with the disciples today; He would be handed over to be put to death.   Not your everyday chat; so He wants to make sure they are listening!   With all the distractions besetting us today – TV, social media, music, civil unrest, worries over Corona, concerns about our health and that of our family and loved ones – it’s no wonder that we all have trouble listening to anyone with a really important message. This is a good time for us to remember that prayer is a...
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  Friday – 25 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 9:18-22 A Case of Mistaken Identity Mount of Beatitudes Ever been mistaken for someone else?   Years ago, I was out with one of my buddies and a guy came up to us and started a conversation.   It turns out that he thought I was a friend of his, a guy named Jack who was a cop.   I told him insistently that he had the wrong guy, but he continued to insist he was right!   I finally had to pull out my driver’s license before he reluctantly gave up and accepted the fact that I was not who he thought I was.   Weird! Today’s Gospel offers Peter’s confession of faith – You are the Christ of God.   But let’s focus instead on the other disciples.   They tell Jesus that people think He is John the Baptist reborn or Elijah or one of the prophets.   They think He is a religious leader from the past come back to life.   They mistake Him for someone else.   And yet there is one religiou...
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