Palm Sunday in the Bronx was a lovely sunny morning. After celebrating the 9:00 a.m. Mass in Italian here at Saint Theresa's (the 80 or 90 usually in attendance unsurprisingly doubled in size), I walked around the neighborhood and stopped at the house of an elderly lady whose limited walking ability did not allow her to come to church. It turned out to be her 93rd birthday and she obviously wanted to chat a bit.I asked where she was from originally, and she replied, "Molise." I said, "allora, Abruzzese;" but she corrected me, with a touch of pride: "Molisana!" I then inquired about the characteristics of "i Molisani." And she replied: "Father, there are good and bad people in every place;" and quoted a proverb from her native region: "mangiando, bevendo, tradicendo!"I thought of her during the gospel for today's Mass:

While they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely, it is not I, Lord?"

One after another.