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,
[00:00:47] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
At that time, Jesus exclaimed, I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.
For although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Sometimes the simplest truths are the deepest truths.
The trouble is, because they're so simple, basic, we don't spend much time thinking about them.
They're just there.
We have one of those truths. In today's passage from Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says, no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
The very next thing Jesus says is, come to me, all you who are weary and are burdened.
Let's step back and look at this.
We know we're to call ourselves daughters and sons of God.
[00:02:42] Speaker C: How can we be God?
[00:02:44] Speaker B: But God is good, and God is going to treat us as though we were God's own children.
That's where this simple but profound truth comes in.
Jesus came down from heaven so we could join ourselves to him.
Jesus became one of us so he could bring us into the same relationship he has with his Father.
There's an old saying in tradition. The divine became human so humans could become divine.
This is real, not pretend.
Jesus says, I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.
I have come to share with you the same spirit that is in me.
You will have God's own life within you, and you will come with me to God and will share in my own relationship with the Father.
We will stand before God and I will say, this is my brother, my sister.
These are your sons and daughters.
This is God's pure gift.
But it's real.
We are joined to Jesus Christ.
We're not half brothers, half sisters.
We receive the gift of his own spirit.
We have God's life within us.
And Jesus takes us where we thought only he could go, to the heart of the Trinity.
Jesus says to us, you are what I am.
All this becomes clearer when we think about baptism.
The traditional form of baptism is to be totally immersed in the water.
The water represents Jesus Christ, and by entering the water we are joined with Jesus, grafted into him.
Then there is confirmation.
We are anointed with the Chrism, the same word from which we get the word Christ, and the Spirit comes upon us and stays with us.
We receive the same spirit that came upon Mary when she conceived Jesus, the
[00:04:52] Speaker C: same Spirit that descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan River.
We have new life within us, God's life, and we become sons and daughters of God.
Then there is the Eucharist.
When the bread and the wine are brought forward and placed on the altar, they represent us.
We then join with Jesus as in his dying. He gives himself entirely into the hands of the Father.
We join with him. And when we come forward to receive the bread and the cup, it isn't simply a private audience with Jesus.
The body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus become part of our own body and soul.
We become what we eat.
Oh, this is a simple truth. Jesus came so we could become new with him and be brought into his own relationship with God.
It's not complicated, but it's profound and it's the key to everything else we believe.
If we let ourselves think about this truth, let ourselves truly believe it, then every day looks different.
Death looks different too.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: And if we let ourselves think about
[00:06:12] Speaker C: it and believe it, then we can begin to act more like who we are.
We begin to act like God's daughter.
God's son.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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[00:07:28] Speaker B: Sa.
