Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign 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 Mendon, 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 Luke.
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, 10 lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, jesus, master, have pity on us.
And when he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests.
As they were going, they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice. And he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply, 10 were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other 9?
Has none. But this foreigner returned to give thanks to God.
Then he said to him, stand up and go.
Your faith has saved you.
The Gospel of the Lord 12 years after my ordination as a priest of Detroit, I was asked to teach preaching at St. John's Seminary in Plymouth.
I hadn't taken any advanced courses in preaching.
I simply had the regular preparation all candidates for the priesthood receive.
So I prepared by talking to regular folks about homilies.
I carried a notebook in my pocket, and every chance I got, I asked people what they liked or didn't like about homilies.
I wrote down what they said, sorted it into categories, and that's what I taught.
I remember talking to one person who was in her 30s and had a fairly tough life.
She was separated, was raising a couple of children on her own, and worked as a nurse.
I asked her what I should teach these priests to be about preaching.
She thought for a few moments and then said, tell them you guys get to go on a retreat every year and a day of recollection now and then.
But the only retreat I have is going to Mass on Sunday.
Just once I'd like to leave Mass feeling better than when I walked in.
Usually I leave feeling like I'm carrying more burdens with me than when I came in.
Just once I'd like to feel consoled.
I'd like to hear something that just makes me feel good.
But usually I feel like I got bad marks.
I never forgot that. It reminded me that what we celebrate here at the Eucharist is good news.
The word gospel means good news.
The Mass is meant to be a celebration.
We remember and pray about and sing about the great truths of our faith.
We experience the consoling presence of God.
Well, today's gospel is all about good news.
At the time of Jesus, leprosy was a word used to describe a variety of contagious skin diseases.
The only way they could keep these from spreading was to isolate people who had the disease.
They couldn't enter a village and they couldn't live with their families.
They had to live on the edge.
If the disease went away, they would go to a Jewish priest and have him certify that they were clean and no longer dangerous to other people's health.
So these 10 people with leprosy come to Jesus.
Notice they stood at a distance and they begged to be healed.
Jesus looked at them and said, go show yourselves to the priests.
In other words, he told them, you want to be healed?
Well, it's done. You're going to be just fine.
Go show yourselves to the priests to certify you are healed.
They went, and on their way they were healed just like that.
Imagine how they felt to be able to return to their villages, go home to their families.
Now, here's the good news.
When Jesus cured these people with leprosy, he was teaching us how he cures us of our sins just as they were cleansed. We are cleansed.
Jesus was teaching that he forgives our sins, washes us clean, just like that.
Do you want to be clean?
Well, you are.
You're forgiven.
Just like that.
Remember how those with leprosy cried out to Jesus, master, have pity on us?
Well, Luke wrote his gospel in Greek, and in Greek, the words are kyrie eleison.
We used to say it in Greek at Mass, but now we say it in English.
Lord, have mercy on us.
The good news is, when we go to Mass, our sins are forgiven, washed clean, just like that.
Oh, there are times when we've totally broken our relationship with the Lord and we have to receive the special sacrament of reconciliation.
We sort of redo our baptism.
That's what the sacrament of reconciliation was originally called, a second baptism.
But most of the time, our sins aren't of that kind.
In a given week, we fail. We sin, we do some things, say some things we wish we hadn't done or said.
Well, we go to the Eucharist to be cleansed.
And we are. Just like that.
What good news.
What a wonderful feeling.
What a good reason to go to the Eucharist.
We Feel lighter, not more burdened when we leave.
This is part of our tradition. It's part of the prayers at Mass.
At the beginning, after we say three times, lord have mercy on us.
The priest says, may Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life.
Just like that.
After the gospel, when the priest kisses the book, he says, may the words of the Gospel wipe away our sins.
At the words of institution over the cup, the priest repeats the words of Jesus, this is the cup of my blood. It will be shed for you and for many, so that sins may be forgiven.
Just like that.
Just before communion, the priest holds up the bread and the cup and says, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
One of the great benefits of returning to our tradition of drinking from the cup at communion is to experience the feeling of our whole self, inside and outside, being washed clean by the real presence of the Lord himself.
Now that is good news.
Today's gospel is also about giving thanks.
This is the gospel passage we usually use on Thanksgiving Day.
There is no simpler, more beautiful, more refreshing way of praying than simply to give thanks to God.
It helps to remember we don't give thanks to God to flatter God.
God doesn't need flattery. It's more like a six year old giving his mother dandelions on Mother's Day.
The child isn't flattering her, cajoling her.
The child simply recognizes, especially on that day, how much his mother loves him and how much he loves his mother.
And you know how a mother feels when the child does that?
Well, that's how God feels when we do it.
That's how we feel when, from our hearts, we give thanks to God.
We can give thanks to God for all sorts of things.
Sunshine, a cup of coffee, a roof over our heads when it's raining.
I'll tell you what happens when we thank God.
We get in touch with the deepest, most beautiful truths of our faith.
When we say thanks, we experience the goodness of God.
We realize more deeply that because of God's gift, we exist.
We have life.
Not only that, but we realize God takes us as his own daughter, his own son.
And we realize that God has given us a life that survives death.
A life that is eternal, glorious, happy to look at the Greek again. As many of you know, the Greek word Eucharist means thanksgiving.
That's what we do at Eucharist.
We see this in the Eucharistic prayer.
Remember how we begin the prayer, The Lord be with you. And also with you Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give him thanks and praise.
Indeed it is.
It is right and good and beautiful and refreshing to give God thanks and praise.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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