Thoughts on Saturday's Gospel

MT 5:33-37

Let your "Yes" be "Yes" and your "No" be "No". How often it is that we hide the truth from ourselves and from others in a desire to make ourselves appear more pleasant. In the religious life, in the name of maintaining community it's easier to suppress difficulties than to air out differences in order that they might be resolved. Even as I was making myself dinner this evening I found myself wishing that there were some types of jelly besides grape and strawberry but God forbid that I put down a different type of jelly on the shopping list "because I don't want to be a bother". I'd much rather just complain in secret about how I wish that my needs were being better met. Sometimes it's better to be honest and disagreeable than it is to be dishonest and outwardly pleasant. At least it ensures that relationships will be built more on a stable foundation and not on marshmallowy pleasantries.