Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord this week on Sundays with Bishop Ken, our guest, Father Pete Gaspini, shares today's gospel with us, followed by one of Bishop Ken's homilies.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Pilate said to Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?
Jesus answered, do you say this on your own, or have others told you about me?
Pilate answered, I am not a jew. Am I your own nation? And the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?
Jesus answered, my kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.
So Pilate said to him, then you are a king.
Jesus answered, you say I am a kingdom. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.
The gospel of the Lord.
First, I want to take a look at something Jesus said in today's gospel. My kingdom does not belong to this world.
Jesus has plans for this world. He has become part of it, and he planted seeds in it. His teachings, his way of life, God's own goodness. These didn't spring up from the world. They came from God.
Jesus frequently spoke of the kingdom of God as already begun here on earth.
But the kingdom of God is not of the world. Its values and principles didn't come from the world. They came from God.
When Jesus says that his kingdom does not belong to this world, he isn't saying that it does not involve this world.
Indeed it does.
God has plans for creation, and the ultimate plan is called the kingdom of God.
But the values and principles that belong to the world as we know it are not the values and principles of God.
There was a book written in 1948 by the historian Carl van Doren, and it was entitled the great Rehearsal.
It was a detailed account of the founding of the United States.
After winning independence in the revolutionary war. The colonies had to decide whether simply to be a league of individual and sovereign states or create a federal government, which, while allowing each state a degree of independence, would create a national government that would have the power to regulate national affairs.
Carl Van Doren tells the story of the federal convention in 1787, which, under the leadership of George Washington, created the United States of America, but not without difficulty.
How do you balance the freedom of individual states and their collective responsibility to a nation called the United States?
How do you keep smaller states from being overpowered and overruled by larger states.
Well, it was a struggle, but we know how it ended.
Van Doren called this the great rehearsal because he said that it was a rehearsal of what this world will someday have to do.
Let's think about this.
We are already dealing with a world economy, and we are dealing with terrorism and with the fear that more and more individual nations are developing nuclear arms.
We can even look ahead to the threat of a large asteroid that could be headed straight for earth and would require a worldwide effort to fend it off.
I'm not here today to deal with the complexities of some kind of world government.
I simply want to use it as an image and invite us to do some reflections on Christ the king.
Let's imagine that there was a world government, and let's imagine that Jesus Christ was placed in charge.
So in our imagination, we think of Jesus as the head of a world government.
What's the first thing he would do? And what are some of the next things he would do?
I think it would be helpful for us to spend some time thinking about this.
We could also bring it closer to home.
Put that image aside for a moment and think about this.
What if Jesus were the head of your local church or parish? What's the first thing he would do?
What are some of the next things he would do?
Let's think about this.
We could bring it even closer to home. What if Jesus were the head of your family, your extended family, with grandparents, parents, in laws, nephews, and nieces? What's the first thing he would do?
What are some of the other things he would do?
Keep thinking. Finally, we can bring it as close to home as it could possibly be.
What if Jesus were in charge of my life?
What if he said, I've come to direct your life? What's the first thing he would do? What are some of the other things he would do?
This coming week, think about those images I mentioned. Jesus Christ, in charge of this world, in charge of your church, in charge of your family, in charge of you.
What's the first thing he would do? What are some of the other things he would do? How does it change your day, your life?
It's called meditation, and it's a fine way to pray.
May God bless us all.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for daily reflections. During the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, subscribe to the Little Books app found on the Apple or Google Play stores, the podcast is brought to you free of charge from little books. To help support our ministry. Please consider donating by clicking on the donate button now. And of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast?
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