Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: 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 each liturgical season, narrating our little book's reflections Here is today's Gospel and Homily.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus said to him, what is written in the law?
How do you read it? He said in reply, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
He replied to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live.
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise, a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.
Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robber's victim?
He answered, the one who treated him with mercy. Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.
The Gospel of the Lord this is possibly the most famous parable in all the Gospels, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
I want to give my homily in hope that we can listen to this parable with different ears.
A parable is a simple story that teaches a profound truth.
Whenever we read one of Jesus's parables, we need to look for the deep truth and not get lost in the details or simply see it as a practical lesson in behavior.
For example, the Parable of the Good Samaritan isn't a lesson about stopping to help stranded motorists.
It can get complicated because there are safety issues.
But that Kind of superficial application. Isn't the point of what Jesus was saying?
The parable of the Good Samaritan goes much, much deeper.
Remember, the question to which the parable responds is, who is my neighbor?
And the response turns the question around and takes up the deeper question.
How do I let the love of God that is in me shine on the world around me?
Here's a way of getting at the deeper truth.
Let's imagine there's a planet with intelligent life on it.
We'll make it a smaller planet than Earth, and we'll say the inhabitants have made their planet a place of peace and goodwill.
It's not a perfect place, but they've managed to work things out. So they live together peaceably and make sure everyone is taken care of.
They've been living that way for thousands of years in our imagined place.
Some people from this planet come to Earth and are given a grand tour of the whole world.
They would be impressed with a lot of things, especially the beauty of this planet with its trees and flowers and lakes and waterfalls.
But they would also discover places that aren't beautiful.
They would come upon whole sections of cities that are run down, and they would see people living in squalor.
They would go to other parts of the world and see people starving, children starving and dying from lack of food.
These extraterrestrial visitors would visit our countries and say to us, you let that happen.
You let that go on.
You call this a civilized society?
You sleep at night knowing there are millions of people in squalor on your planet.
How does that happen?
What would we say to these extraterrestrial visitors?
I come from a large family. Nine children.
I'm the seventh. I remember, now that I think about it, how often family members had to fall back on the family.
The economic level of my family was lower middle class.
We didn't have a big house.
But I remember now that I look back, some of my older brothers and sisters, after they had been married for a few years, came back to live with us for a time.
They needed some temporary help in a difficult time or a time of transition, and we just took them in.
And I remember other situations where the family helped each of us when there was some kind of problem.
The loss of a job, health problems.
We had the family to fall back on.
This isn't hard for you to imagine because you could tell a hundred stories from your own families.
The question wasn't, which ones will we help? The question was, are we going to be a family only to our family members?
What strikes Me is a good part of our world, including people in our own country don't have a family to fall back on.
Or if they do, the family is in the same predicament and can't give them the help they need.
Can you see what I'm leading up to?
The response of Jesus to this question, who is my neighbor?
Turns the question around.
Jesus says, stop worrying about categorizing people, asking who is my neighbor?
And discover you are supposed to be family to other people, to the whole world, to all creation.
You are to be neighbor, brother, sister, mother, father to the rest of the world.
You can't single handedly solve the problems of the whole world, but you have been called to a different way of life.
Namely, you are supposed to live your whole life in a way that is neighborly, friendly, brotherly, sisterly, motherly, fatherly to the rest of the world.
But there's more.
When Jesus talked about this in other parts of the Gospel, he gave us the reason for this.
The reason isn't because God is watching us and God will get us if we don't, and God will reward us if we do.
The reason is, Jesus tells us, because then you will live up to who you are, daughters and sons of God.
For God makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and and the unjust.
The reason for following this way of life is we believe God's life is in us, which means God's love is in us. And we are not simply to enjoy it, which indeed we should, but also make love shine through us to others and to all creation.
That's the reason we are to live our lives in a way that is neighborly, friendly, brotherly, sisterly, motherly, fatherly to the rest of the world.
I like the last line of our first reading today when Moses tells the people when they enter the Promised Land, they are to live up to who they are, God's chosen people.
Moses says, this is not something up in the sky that you should say, who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it that we may carry it out.
Nor is it across the sea. And you should say, who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?
No, it is something very near to you already in your mouths and in your hearts.
You have only to carry it out.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is saying, my love is already within you.
Let the love within you shine all around and stop picking out who gets it.
With all of this in mind, let's all listen to this, the most famous parable of all A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise, a Levi came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.
Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robber's victim?
He answered the one who treated him with mercy.
Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.
Luke chapter 10, verses 25 through 37 May those words ring in my ears, shine in my heart, go and do likewise.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us today.
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