Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. We welcome guest reader Deacon Eric Bissette.
Deacon Eric is a beloved spiritual leader in his home parishes of the Diocese of Rochester, New York.
Little Book's listeners will recognize Deacon Eric as a regular narrator for our daily reflections.
And now, here is today's gospel and homily.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.
God forbid, Lord, no such thing shall ever happen to you.
He turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct, the Gospel of the Lord.
This gospel can sound a bit negative, more like bad news than good news, that we have to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
Whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, and so on.
Actually, this is a very hopeful gospel.
Let me explain.
There's a truth we must come to terms with, because it's one of those laws of life.
It's this.
On this earth, everything that blossoms dies.
It's just plain true.
And when we recognize this truth and accept it, then we can enjoy life a lot more.
The child in the womb doesn't want to leave it and has to die to the comfortable life to be born into infancy.
But infancy too will die, and the child is born into childhood.
Then childhood dies and a person is born into adulthood.
And that dies as you move into old age.
And finally you die. And you are born into the life that never dies.
But along the way, everything that blossoms dies.
If we accept this fact and see it as a path to life, then we enjoy life much more.
We can spend too much time trying to hold on to something, never willing to let go, and we worry about it dying so much that we can't even enjoy it.
A simple example is what youngsters sometimes do. When, along with a couple of other youngsters, they get an ice cream stick, one youngster will want to make hers last longer than the others.
So she takes only small bites or she licks it.
Usually it ends up melting.
She tried so hard to save it that she never enjoyed it.
That's what Jesus said in this gospel.
Whoever tries to save their life will lose it.
Whatever blossoms, dies.
When we accept this law of life, then we can enjoy life much more.
One thinks of cut flowers.
We put them in a vase and enjoy them. And after a while they die.
I suppose you could put them in the refrigerator and they would last longer.
Sometimes people take a trip. The scenery is stunning.
The villages are quaint and the townspeople are delightful.
They want to hang on to all this, so they take 6,000 pictures.
But they're so busy taking pictures, they can't enjoy the trip.
And then when they get home, nobody really wants to look at the pictures anyway.
Everything that blossoms, dies.
Childhood is an example too.
Sometimes a child doesn't want to grow up, or the parents don't want the child to grow up.
It happens in sports.
There have been great athletes who, in the twilight of their career, didn't realize it's over.
They should retire and give way to the next generation of stars.
But they can't let go, and they go on too long.
Everything that blossoms, dies.
This isn't a pessimistic way of seeing things. It's not depressing.
All good things in life, even though they die, are signs of the life that never dies.
The life into which we are born by dying.
Sometimes along the way, we have to die to our dreams, because they will never be.
Sometimes we have to die to our urges and our wants, our preferences and our inclinations.
But we believe that in dying, something good is born.
So here we are in September, and summer is dying.
But summer will give way to autumn with its colorful trees.
And autumn will give way to winter with those same trees beautifully covered with snow, if you're in a place like Michigan.
And winter will give way to spring, with new life everywhere.
And on it goes.
Everything that blossoms dies and gives birth to something new.
There will come a day, of course, when you and I will face death itself. And we will die.
But we believe in more than death.
We believe in dying and rising.
It's why, here at the Eucharist, we place everything on the altar, our whole life, and give it to God, trusting that by giving everything into God's hands, we are born into the life that never, never dies.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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