Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] 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 John.
Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep and doves, as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area with the sheep and oxen and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
And to those who sold doves, he said, take these out of here and stop making my father's house a marketplace.
His disciples recalled the words of zeal, for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him, what sign can you show us for doing this?
Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jew said, this temple has been under construction for 46 years and you will raise it up in three days.
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they came to believe the scripture and the word. Jesus had spoken the Gospel of the Lord.
When I was in college, I spent most of my summers as a counselor at a boys camp in northern Michigan.
I was in charge of taking the boys out on overnight canoe trips down the Ausable or Manistee rivers.
Another counselor and I often talked about taking a trip by ourselves and doing it at night to enjoy the peaceful stillness of nature.
Well, one night we finally did it.
I have a couple of suggestions for anyone who's thinking about doing something like that.
First of all, it would be a good idea to pick a night when there is going to be a moon.
We didn't, and it gets dark out there.
Secondly, you should decide beforehand who will bring the flashlight.
As we were crawling around in the dark, we had a little discussion about that.
In the middle of the night it started to rain and so we pulled to the side and scrambled up the bank, found a level place and managed to pitch our tent in the dark.
In the morning we were awakened by a truck.
As it turned out, we had pitched our tent in the middle of a dirt road.
I thought about it when I read today's Gospel about the Temple Coming down We build a lot of things that have to come down or fall down by themselves, and it's difficult because usually we don't know why.
On my midnight trip, it was obvious a Mack truck was a few feet away.
But most of the time it's not as easy because we're still in the dark.
We all build a lot of temples.
We make plans. Not only life projects, but plans for next week.
Each of us here could think about plans and expectations we had that have come down.
We build temples because we feel our plans are good, even holy.
There is no question our intentions are good.
So were the intentions of the Jews who built the temple, but it had to come down.
Parents build temples for their children, and it's hard when those temples come down.
We do it in reference to our friends, our families, ourselves.
At work.
We build a lot of temples.
We don't realize that sometimes these plans really aren't for our own good or for the good of others.
At least they aren't in the long run.
They are right in the middle of the road that leads to God's kingdom.
Think about St. Joseph.
Most of St. Joseph's plans didn't work out.
He could have gotten awfully mad at God, but he didn't.
He accepted God's will with trust.
The same was true of Mary.
At the Annunciation, the angel said her child would sit on the throne of David.
She must have thought of that as she laid him in the manger, a feeding trough, wondering how the birth of her child would bring great joy to everyone.
She must have thought of that at the prophecy of Simeon, when a sword pierced her heart.
She must have thought of that a hundred times afterwards.
All along the way, and even into his public life, Mary watched her plans come down.
We have to make plans and we have to build things, and that is good.
But don't build temples.
Don't make them so sacred that they would appear to have been built by God.
Think of the tent in the middle of the road.
Sometimes we're in the dark and we simply have to trust in God.
God always has a master plan.
Each of us could think about that as we look at our lives.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
If you like this week's Reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast Platform Sundays with Bishop Ken is a free broadcast from Little Books to help support our ministry. Please consider clicking the Donate button.
Sharing this podcast with a friend is another great way to help our ministry grow.
Our Little Books app features our Little Books daily Reflections during Advent Christmas, Lent and Easter.
Here you can read, listen and journal in a prayerful digital environment.
Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw.
For more about Little Books and scripture based prayer resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks.org have a great week and pray with us again soon.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Sam.
