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 Luke Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
Two people went up to the temple area to pray.
One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to o God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity, greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and I pay tithes on my whole income.
But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, o God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
I tell you. The latter went home justified, not the former.
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Gospel of the Lord I want to take you back to 1968.
It was the year the Tigers won the pennant and then the World Series.
It was about this time of the year, toward the end of the regular season.
The Tigers had clinched a pennant and they were playing their last home game of the year against the New York Yankees.
Mickey Mantle was at the plate in the late innings and the Tigers were leading five to one.
Mickey Mantle had announced that he was retiring from baseball and everyone knew this was his last at bat in Tiger Stadium.
Denny McLean was pitching when Mickey stepped into the batter's box. He smiled at McLean and motioned with his bat to a spot right down the middle of the plate belt high.
He was kidding, saying, serve up a pitch right there for me to hit.
The first pitch was right down the middle belt high, and Mickey was so surprised he didn't even swing at it.
McLean got ready for the next pitch and he nodded his head saying, I'm going to do it. Put it right there where you want it.
He did, and Mickey Mantle hit it into the right field bleachers.
The crowd went wild and gave Mantle a standing ovation as he trotted around the bases.
As he rounded second, he turned toward McLean and tipped his hat, saying, thank you.
It was one of those great moments in sports.
If Mickey Mantle had bragged about this, saying how he hit a home run off of Denny McLean when he was at the peak of his pitching career.
It would have been the wrong thing to do.
The pitch was served up to him right down the middle.
In a sense, it was an unearned run, but Mickey didn't brag about it.
He thanked Denny as he rounded second base.
The trouble with the Pharisee in today's gospel is that he thought he was earning God's love by fasting twice a week and tithing and leading a good life.
He didn't realize this was all the result of God's grace, which God served up to him right down the middle.
The tax collector, on the other hand, knew he didn't earn anything on his own.
He simply turned to God and asked for mercy.
He knew the love God had for him was unearned.
We have to open ourselves to God's grace and respond to it.
When Mickey Mantle got that first pitch, he didn't swing at it, but he did on the second one.
Goodness doesn't happen automatically.
We have to do something.
But the source of any good thing we do is really God.
We receive God's unearned love, God's unearned grace, and God serves it up to us right down the middle.
It can help to understand this and come to know God better if we think about the unearned love we receive from other people, for example, from our parents.
Think of a parent, especially with a little child, and think of all the unearned love the child receives.
Grandparents are another example.
Their love for their grandchildren is something to behold, and it's a good example of spontaneous, unearned love.
Teachers are another example.
I know that in my 12 years of school at St. Charles Parish on the east side of Detroit, I received a great deal of unearned love for my teachers.
They invested a lot of time and caring and patience in me.
Good teachers do that.
When we think of that kind of love, we catch the good news of this gospel.
We recognize and celebrate God's unearned love for us.
And when we realize this, we act differently.
We realize God's own love is in us, even though we could never earn it.
We realize that because of this, we can rise to heights that would otherwise be impossible.
If we really catch hold of this truth with a down deep awareness, then we start giving unearned love to others.
Not just the children or grandchildren, but people who aren't easy to love and who certainly don't earn our love.
Instead of trying to put them down trying to strike them out.
We serve up unearned love right down the middle.
We're all here around this eucharistic table to say thank you to God.
That's what the Greek word Eucharist means, Thanksgiving.
We thank God for serving up his love to us and serving up his grace right down the middle.
And since we are God's daughters and sons, made in the image and likeness of God, made to look and act like God, we go out from here and do what God does.
We extend to anyone and everyone the same unearned love that God gives to us right down the middle.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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