Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies podcast

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

A weekly homily podcast from Bishop Robert Barron, produced by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

A weekly homily podcast from Bishop Robert Barron, produced by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

 

#999

The Peace that the World Can’t Give

Friends, on this Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, I want to draw attention to our second reading, which is from St. Paul to the Philippians. These lines about joy, anxiety, prayer, and peace can run right through our minds, but they’re actually breathtaking, and they open up something at the very heart of the spiritual life. ... Read more

10 Dec 2024

15 MINS

15:00

10 Dec 2024


#998

Have You Wandered Away from God?

Friends, in our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, there is a lot of talk about building highways. In the Bible, both Old Testament and New, we find the theme of exile. Very often, Israel finds itself sent away from its own Promised Land, and a great hope is that one day, the exiles will return home on a highway that God has built. This is a symbol of spiritual exile—and to meet the highway that God has prepared, we have to do some preparation ourselves. ... Read more

03 Dec 2024

14 MINS

14:44

03 Dec 2024


#997

Three Dimensions of Advent

Friends, we come to the First Sunday of Advent, which is the commencement of the new liturgical year. “Adventus” in Latin means arrival or coming, and one way to look at Advent is to see three comings of Christ. There is the coming of Christ in history in Bethlehem, the coming of Christ now as he approaches our hearts, and the coming of Christ someday in the future. All three of these dimensions belong to our Advent preparation. ... Read more

26 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:48

26 Nov 2024


#996

Which Kingdom Are You In?

Friends, we come to the end of the liturgical year with the Feast of Christ the King, where we meditate upon the kingly reign or rule of Christ. Now, we in the modern liberal West have a hard time with kings; we like democratic polities. The United States emerged out of a great rebellion against the king. But we should get over this modern hang-up, because kingship—from Adam all the way up to Christ—is a basic biblical idea. And the importance of today’s feast is that it forces a decision about which king we follow. ... Read more

20 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:47

20 Nov 2024


#995

A New World Unveiled

Friends, we're coming toward the end of the liturgical year, and as is typical, the Church gives us readings of an apocalyptic nature dealing with the end times. “Apocalypse” means “unveiling,” and what’s being unveiled in our readings is the emergence of a new world—not so much in the literal, cosmic sense as in the sense of how we navigate and understand the world. Something has fallen apart; the old world has given way.  ... Read more

12 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:30

12 Nov 2024


#994

Trusting God in Dire Straits

Friends, our first reading is that wonderful story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, which is a kind of hidden gem in the Old Testament. Like so many of the stories in the Bible, it is very understated, but chock full of spiritual meaning. And it has to do with how we respond—and the strange and surprising ways God might respond to us— when things are toughest. ... Read more

05 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:28

05 Nov 2024


#993

The Highest Good Is God Alone

Friends, the readings for this Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time take us to very holy ground. In the first reading, taken from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, we hear the “shema,” a prayer fundamental to Jewish theology and spirituality. And in the Gospel, when one of the scribes asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment, the Son of God, the Torah made flesh, recites the same prayer. We can’t get any more sacred or any clearer indication of how we should govern our lives. ... Read more

29 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:51

29 Oct 2024


#992

Answering God’s Call

Friends, all three readings for this Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time have a golden thread running through them, which is the idea of the call—of the primacy of God’s action in the life of salvation. Whenever we start thinking that this is our own ego project and that we are in command, we are ipso facto on the wrong path. ... Read more

23 Oct 2024

15 MINS

15:22

23 Oct 2024


#991

What Real Power Looks Like

Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is taken from the tenth chapter of Mark, and it is high-octane spiritual business. Something pivotal is being laid out for us in this passage, and it has to do with power, suffering, and a willingness to go where Jesus goes. ... Read more

15 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:37

15 Oct 2024


#990

What Do You Ask God For?

Friends, for this Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our first reading from the marvelous book of Wisdom presents an old biblical trope: If you were to ask God for something, or if God were to come to you and say he will give you whatever you want—what would you ask for? This is a really clarifying question. And while many things might come to mind, the answer of the paradigmatic wisdom figure is instructive. ... Read more

07 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:55

07 Oct 2024


#989

The Biblical Vision of the Family

Friends, the first reading from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark this week are of great importance. They have to do with what we call Christian anthropology—the biblical understanding of who we are—and most specifically, in relation to marriage and family. This question of how we define ourselves is of course on the minds of many people today, and the readings, in a beautifully compact way, bring out the Christian answer. ... Read more

01 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:43

01 Oct 2024


#988

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us

Friends, the first reading and Gospel this Sunday have to do with the Church at war with itself. The devil is the scatterer, the divider, and one of his favorite tricks is to take the Church—which is meant to be an instrument of the Gospel in the world—and to turn us against one another. ... Read more

25 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:01

25 Sep 2024


#987

The Ladder Doesn’t Matter

Friends, why was the story of Jesus with the little children, versions of which appear in the three synoptic Gospels, so vividly remembered by the first Christians? I think they intuited that it got very close to the heart of Jesus’ teaching. The way Mark sets up his account of this story in our Gospel for this weekend is frankly funny, and it’s an example of the disciples completely missing the point of everything.  ... Read more

17 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:39

17 Sep 2024


#986

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Friends, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”—and this week, I am going to go once more into the issue of faith and works, which has been dividing Western Christianity since the Reformation. Our second reading from the Letter of James is a key text on this issue, and its metaphor of healing—together with Paul’s forensic metaphor—orient us to the Catholic view of justification. ... Read more

10 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:52

10 Sep 2024


#985

Be Opened!

Friends, our Gospel for today is the evocative scene of Jesus healing a man who cannot hear and cannot speak. This man is beautifully symbolic of many in our culture today: we don’t listen to God, and therefore we can’t speak clearly about God. To us, as to him, Jesus says, “Ephphatha!”—be opened to the Word of God! ... Read more

03 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:49

03 Sep 2024


#984

The Goodness—and Dangers—of the Law

Friends, as Americans, we have a very ambiguous relationship to law. On the one hand, we are a nation of independently minded people; we don’t like the law imposing itself on us. At the same time—let’s face it—we are a hyper-litigious society. We see the same ambiguity about law—both its beauty and its shadow side—in our three readings today. ... Read more

27 Aug 2024

14 MINS

14:47

27 Aug 2024


#983

Do You Accept This Teaching?

Friends, we come now to the close of this great discourse of Jesus in the sixth chapter of John, where we see the aftereffects of his teaching on the Real Presence. The Eucharist is a standing or falling point of Christianity, and the question Jesus poses to the Twelve is posed to every one of us today: Do you also want to leave over this teaching? Do you reject it, or do you accept it?  ... Read more

20 Aug 2024

14 MINS

14:52

20 Aug 2024


#982

Really, Truly, and Substantially Present

Friends, we continue reading from the sixth chapter of John, this pivotal section of the New Testament where John lays out his Eucharistic theology. And we come today to the rhetorical high point of this discourse, where things really come to a head. It is the ground of the doctrine of the Real Presence: Jesus is not simply symbolically present in the Eucharist; he’s really, truly, and substantially present under the signs of bread and wine. ... Read more

13 Aug 2024

14 MINS

14:42

13 Aug 2024


#981

Strength for the Journey

Friends, we’re continuing our reading of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, which is all about the Eucharist. And here’s my take on our reading for today: A long trip by car or plane can be uncomfortable, even overwhelming. But we’re heading somewhere else; we’re on a journey. And on a long journey, you have to find sustenance to keep going. ... Read more

06 Aug 2024

14 MINS

14:14

06 Aug 2024