Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

The Trinity is not simply a conundrum for theologians to puzzle over. It names the very heart of the Christian faith. Our God is a community or family of love, and we are invited, through Christ, to share in that love.

The book of Revelation features plagues, earthquakes, disasters, famines, and battles both in heaven and on earth. All of this mayhem is meant to signal two very basic spiritual facts: the world is under divine judgment and the church of Jesus Christ will always be opposed by the power of sin. The great good news of the book of Revelation is that God's judgment conduces to a transformed world and that the church of the risen Lord will triumph. Despite all of the darkness of history, God is writing a divine comedy.

"As John looks into the throne room of heaven, he sees a King holding a scroll, which stands for the meaning of history. The only one in heaven or on earth who is able to open it is the ""lamb standing as though slain,"" that is to say, Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. He, we Christians claim, is the secret, the key, the breaker of the code."

The book of Revelation is, literally, God's last word to us. It is the most populated, most exciting, most bizarre, bloodiest and most mysterious book in the Scriptures. I believe that the best interpretation is the simplest: it reveals that Jesus Christ is the Lord of history and that those who follow him are, despite all trials, on the winning side.

At the end of his gospel, St. John presents a beautiful icon of the Church. Peter and his companions are fishing on the Sea of Tiberias. When they look to the risen Christ, they have success, hauling in a catch that symbolizes all the people of the world. This is the Church at its best: illumined by Christ, it gathers the nations into the ark of salvation.