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 Brenda Piazza.
Brenda is a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Menden, New York, where she joyfully serves in a variety of ministries.
Brenda also shares her gifts with us and each liturgical season, narrating our little book's reflections.
And now, here is today's Gospel and Homily.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, which is what had been said through Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled.
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali the way to the sea beyond the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death.
Light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea.
They were fishermen.
He said to them, come after me and I will make you fishers of men.
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, he called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.
The Gospel of the Lord.
The first two chapters of Matthew's gospel tell the story of Jesus birth. The third chapter introduces John the Baptist. Then, in the fourth chapter, from which today's reading is taken, Matthew begins the story of the public ministry of Jesus.
Matthew summarizes the whole ministry of Jesus in one sentence.
From that time on he began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The Jewish people had long been waiting for a Messiah who would restore the kingdom of Israel.
It once was a great kingdom back in the glory days of David and his son Solomon, a thousand years before Jesus. But the kingdom was no more.
After Solomon's death, it split into two, the north and the south. Because of civil war.
Then, seven centuries before Christ, the northern kingdom was overrun and it was no more.
Five centuries before Christ, the southern Kingdom was lost. And from then on, Israel was ruled by one country after another.
And this is the way it was at the time of Jesus.
So they looked for the day when a messiah would come, someone sent by God who would restore the once proud kingdom of David and make it even greater than it was, stretching all the way from Egypt and the southwest to modern day Iran.
All the enemies surrounding Israel would be conquered, and it would be a time of great prosperity.
But Jesus didn't preach the kingdom of David.
Matthew says from that time on, he began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
This is what Jesus talked about over and over. The kingdom of heaven, which he sometimes referred to as the kingdom of God.
When Pilate asked Jesus, are you a king?
Jesus replied, my kingdom is not of this world.
What is this kingdom of God?
It is the ultimate victory over evil, physical evil and moral evil. It is the elimination of all evil from this universe.
There was, and there is still evil all around us.
Sickness for one thing, death for another.
Storms ruined crops, sank ships.
There were droughts when the heavens were shut tight and no rain fell.
There was moral evil, too.
Robbery, cruelty, hatred.
In Jewish thought at the time, all of these evils were attributed directly to Satan. It was Satan who ruled over the kingdom of evil. And he wielded great power, causing storms, sickness, death, and also causing people to sin.
This is the kingdom Jesus came to take on.
The stage was set, the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan. It was good against evil, light against darkness.
From that time on, he began to preach and say, repent for. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
What do we see him do in the rest of the gospel?
He calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He casts out demons.
He cures sick people.
He brings the dead back to life. He forgives sinners.
When the disciples asked him how to pray, he says, when you pray, say, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
The coming of Jesus marked a great turning point in the struggle against darkness and evil.
Jesus used the parable of the mustard seed, because the seed is so tiny, yet grows into a great plant.
He used the parable of the tiny bit of yeast that makes a whole batch of dough rise.
Jesus has breathed his spirit upon us, and we are engaged day by day to plant the seeds of goodness in our world and gradually to overcome evil and to help build the kingdom of God.
It's that simple and it's that colossal.
I close with this.
The key to happiness and to a sense of fulfillment, whatever the circumstances of your life. Is this to know you're part of this great enterprise of God and to enjoy being part of it?
It's true, and I'll illustrate it with a true story.
Two years ago I spent a day helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house.
It's no small thing to build a house, but you don't do it alone. People with all kinds of skills and people with no skills join together in the project.
I showed up on the site and they must have had an intuition about my skills as a carpenter, plumber, or electrician, because do you know what they assigned me to do?
Well, there was this truckload of dirt that had been dumped on the site.
They needed the pile of dirt move by wheelbarrow from one part of the site to the other.
And my job was to stand there and shovel the dirt into wheelbarrows all day.
That's what I did.
Shovel dirt.
And do you know what? I enjoyed every minute of it. Not that shoveling dirt is a barrel of laughs. I enjoyed it because I knew I was part of this great project.
I was helping to build a house for someone who didn't have a good home.
I was helping build a home in a rundown neighborhood which would help make it a better place.
I also enjoyed it because I was doing it with many other people.
And even though we had never met before, there was a good spirit in the air.
So I say to you, whatever your age and whatever the circumstances of your life, even if they seem meaningless and monotonous, you are part of something magnificent.
If you bring to your day some goodness, if you bring to your day some light, if only through a smile, you are part of this colossal good work that is God's good work.
Know that it's more than just shoveling dirt.
You are sharing with the Lord and with his disciples around the world in building the Kingdom of God.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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