Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Glory to you, O Lord Jesus said.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: To his disciples, you are salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket.
It is set on a lampstand where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father. That gospel of the Lord.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Jesus Christ.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: If you have lost your taste, remembering that you are salt of the earth, if you could come by this week, because we're running out of salt for the parking lot and sidewalks, could really use your help.
But I want to talk about Isaiah today, because that understanding in Isaiah is that the way best we can honor and love God is by caring for one another. It's just that simple.
Well, the other day I was out at lunchtime with a few of the brothers here from the parish, and as we were sharing a beer with one another, our conversation went where just about everybody I ever spend time with goes. We started talking sports, and we were talking about teams that we liked and players that we rooted for. And of course, we're all late middle age, so we're moving into things that happened basically in the 70s, and we're talking about those kind of sports stars.
Well, one of the guys asked the question, have you ever met or spent any time with any of these famous athletes that we were talking about?
And he followed it up with the fact that he had heard somewhere, I can't remember the details of it, that if you ever want to be able to have a conversation with somebody famous that you run into, the best thing you can do is not tell them how great they are or how much you admire them or that you're their biggest fan.
Instead, ask them about their kids if you know something about them, and they will stop whatever they're doing and spend time talking to you.
Because famous athletes and movie stars and all the rest are just like all of us, and they care about their kids more than just about anything else. You got them hooked.
Well, if we want to say that we love God, then that's a pretty darn good way to get God's attention and God's time to not just ask him about his kids, but to love his kids, to reach out to his kids, to care for them.
And if you want to know what his kids look like, look around you right now, look behind you, in front of you, and to each side of you.
Each and every one of us are children of God.
And the best way that we can offer love to God that is outside of theory, which is where our image of God tends to stay and make it practical, make it true, is to love one another.
Isaiah was dealing with a people that truly had been suffering. There was like nothing left for them.
He wanted them to understand that if they really want to have a profound experience of God in their midst, the best way they could do that is to share the little they had with one another.
And in doing so, they will experience and know God well. Nothing has changed in the thousands of years since those words and those instructions were shared. If we really want to know God, if we really want to experience God, then the best way to do that is in the care, compassion, and love that we show to one another.
Everything else is pretty much just in theory and in our heads. That makes it tangible and it makes it real.
