Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Hate Your Mother and Father

When Jesus tells us to hate mother, father, brothers, sisters, friends, he is not demonstrating a disturbing misanthropy. Rather, he is telling us not to treat those around us as our possessions. The spiritual life consists, not in controlling others for the sake of the ego, but in giving others the space to be.

Taking the Lowest Place

One of the greatest obstacles to effective mission is the attachment to honors and fame. This shrinks the soul and distracts from the only thing that matters: walking with Jesus on the path of discipleship.

An Adventurous God, A Life of Risk

God, from a biblical perspective is a God of adventure and new possibilities. Faith is the response to this adventurous God, and therefore always involves risk. It is a willingness to trust that we are being led even when we cannot see clearly where we are going.

All is Vanity, and That's Good News

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth tells us that nothing here below--money, sex, power, material things, fame--is ultimately valuable, for all of it passes away. This insight shouldn't depress us, it should allow us to live in the truth. Our lives must be directed to the Good that does not pass away, that does not come and go, but rather remains unto eternity.

Rules of Prayer

The Bible seems to indicate that certain "rules" ought to govern and inform our prayer. A first is faith: we must passionately believe that God can do what we are asking for. A second is forgiveness: if we want the grace of God to flow to and through us, we must remove the resentments and angers that block it. And third is praying in Jesus' name: when we ask things of God we should do so in the stance and spirit of his Son.

A Passion for the Impossible

The philosopher Kierkegaard defined faith as the passion for the impossible. When we stand, like Abraham, at the edge of what we can know or control, we look out into the alluring darkness of what God can do in us and for us. To say "yes" to this invitation beyond reason is to have faith.

God's Tender Providence

That God cares for us, even down to the simplest details of our lives, is a basic intuition of the Biblical authors. As Isaiah reminds us, we are, vis-a-vis God, like a child in the lap of a doting mother. This does not mean that our lives are without conflict, but it does mean that we are always under the watchful eye and provident direction of our God.

It is for Freedom that Christ Set Us Free

"Freedom" is one of the most ambiguous words in the religious lexicon. It can mean simply the capacity to choose this or that, to say "yes" or "no." But in a deeper spiritual sense, it means the power to follow only the right path, to say only "yes" to what God holds out to us. It is this latter type of liberty that Christ procures for us His followers.

Birth of St. John the Baptist

In the Eucharistic bread and cup, Jesus Christ is really, truly, and substantially present. This presence comes about through the creative power of the word incarnate in Jesus. What God says--is.

The Liturgy as a Display of God's Justice

In the liturgy, we realize ourselves as the Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. In so doing, we show forth what the whole of human society and culture ought to look like: nonviolence, forgiveness, compassion, the bearing of one another's burdens.