Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies | Podcast Transcripts & Episodes

Both the Old and the New

24 Jul 2005

Contributed by Lukas

At the conclusion of chapter 13 of Matthew's Gospel, the chapter of parables, Jesus says, "the scribe who is learned in the Kingdom of God is like the...

The Mystery of the Wheat and the Weeds

17 Jul 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In our Gospel for today, we hear the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jesus speaks of the mysterious, and often frustrating, intertwining of good a...

The Irresistable Word

10 Jul 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Our first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, shows that God's word is not so much descriptive as creative: it produces what it says. In the very intell...

Zechariah's Strange Prophecy

03 Jul 2005

Contributed by Lukas

We hear in our first reading from the prophet Zechariah. This post-exilic figure is trying to reassure the people that their Messiah will come and wil...

Are You Not Aware?

26 Jun 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In our second reading for this week, St. Paul reminds the Christian community in Rome that baptism means an immersion into the dying of the Lord. In h...

What Are You Afraid Of?

19 Jun 2005

Contributed by Lukas

"Who or what are you most afraid of?" is, I submit, a very important spiritual question. To answer it honestly is to know how and why your life is str...

The New Israel

12 Jun 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In our first reading from the book of Exodus, we hear the wonderful promise of God to Moses and his people that they would constitute a holy nation, a...

The Conversion of Matthew

05 Jun 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel for this week is a literary and theological masterpiece. It subtly yet powerfully tells the story of the conversion of Matthew from tax col...

The Liturgy: A Play of Priest, Congregation, and Ritual

29 May 2005

Contributed by Lukas

On this feast of Corpus Christi, I would like to reflect on the sacred liturgy, the central prayer of the Church. According to Msgr. Francis Mannion, ...

The New Pope and the Trinity

22 May 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In my course on the Trinity here at the seminary, I have, for many years, been using Joseph Ratzinger's book Introduction to Christianity. In the page...

The Falling of the Fire

15 May 2005

Contributed by Lukas

On this great feast of Pentecost, we reflect on the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit has given to each baptized person some gift for...

Habemus Papam (Part 2 of 2)

08 May 2005

Contributed by Lukas

This week I continue my exploration of the life, career, and work of our new Pope, Joseph Ratzinger. In the years after the council, a split occured i...

Habemus Papam (Part 1 of 2)

01 May 2005

Contributed by Lukas

This week and next, I reflect on the life and work of Joseph Ratzinger, the man who now leads the church as Pope Benedict XVI. Ratzinger was strongly ...

A Royal Priesthood

24 Apr 2005

Contributed by Lukas

St. Peter tells us in our second reading that all of us--all the baptized--constitute a royal priesthood. This means that we perform sacrifices, acts ...

Redemptive Suffering

17 Apr 2005

Contributed by Lukas

We hear this week from the Apostle Peter, speaking to the Christian community about redemptive suffering. This is the suffering that comes from doing ...

On the Road

10 Apr 2005

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of the best-loved in the Biblical tradition. It speaks to us of the manner in which we com...

Falling in Love With God

03 Apr 2005

Contributed by Lukas

So many of us skeptical moderns--intellectual heirs of Descartes-- identify with doubting Thomas. We too struggle with faith, ask tough questions, wan...

Lazarus, Come Out

13 Mar 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Our God hates death. Through the prophet Ezekiel, he said, "I will open your graves and have you rise from them." Jesus came to end the reign of death...

The Man Born Blind

06 Mar 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Blindness is a great Biblical symbol of spiritual blindness, the darkening and distortion of our vision. Jesus salves and washes the blind man in John...

The Infinite Thirst

27 Feb 2005

Contributed by Lukas

We are made for God, and therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in him. This longing is symbolized in the thirst of the woman at the well. ...

The Mystery of Light

20 Feb 2005

Contributed by Lukas

On his way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified, Jesus is transfigured before three of his disciples. This manifestation of glory, says Thomas Aqu...

Getting Back to Basics In the Spiritual Life

13 Feb 2005

Contributed by Lukas

On this first Sunday of Lent, the Church asks us to get back to the spiritual basics. We are compelled to consider once again the story of the Fall. G...

Light of the World, Salt of the Earth

06 Feb 2005

Contributed by Lukas

The purpose of the Church is essentially extraverted. It exists for the sake of sanctifying the world. Thus Jesus tells his followers to be light for ...

The Beatitudes: A Spiritual Program

30 Jan 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In the great opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out, in short order, his ethical and spiritual program. It turns all of our customa...

They Abandoned Everything

23 Jan 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel passage for today, taken from the 4th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, recounts the story of the call of the first disciples. When they encount...

Called, Set Apart, Sent

16 Jan 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Cultural commentator Robert Bellah has characterized the typical American approach to religion as individualistic and driven by the desire for persona...

The Baptism of the Lord

09 Jan 2005

Contributed by Lukas

John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, correctly discerns that Jesus is the Son of God, but what he finds disconcerting is that this...

Magi Came From the East

02 Jan 2005

Contributed by Lukas

We see in the visit of the Magi to the Christ child the first hint of the internationalism of Christianity. Precisely because Jesus is the Word made f...

The Word Became Flesh

26 Dec 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The words of Thomas Jefferson defined our nation; the words of Abraham Lincoln strengthened its resolve at a time of unprecedented crisis; the words o...

The Virgin Shall Be With Child

19 Dec 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The fourth and final Isaian image for this Advent season is the most powerful and the most mysterious: the virgin shall be with child. Never underesti...

The Blooming Desert

12 Dec 2004

Contributed by Lukas

We have another great image from the prophet Isaiah this weekend: the blooming desert. So many of the Biblical heroes--Abraham, Moses, John the Baptis...

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

05 Dec 2004

Contributed by Lukas

In the eleventh chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find a description of the gifts of the Holy Spirit with which the Messiah will be embued...

Christ the Crucified King

21 Nov 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our first reading for Mass this Sunday is taken from the opening chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. There is no stronger statement of the abs...

Not One Stone Upon Another

14 Nov 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel for this Sunday opens with Jesus' disciples admiring the splendor of the Temple, the most beautiful, important, and impressive building the...

Celibacy: An Eschatological Sign

07 Nov 2004

Contributed by Lukas

There are celibates in the church because of what Jesus said in our Gospel for today. In the world to come, the Savior specified, people will not marr...

Zacchaeus, Hurry Down

31 Oct 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The story of Zacchaeus is an icon of the spiritual life. Even the worst of us have, deep down, a hunger for God and a desire to see Jesus. When we fol...

The Pharisee and the Publican

24 Oct 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The Irish writer Iris Murdoch said that human beings are naturally self-absorbed and that what we need, consequently, are spiritual exercises that bre...

Will the Son of Man Find Faith on the Earth?

17 Oct 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel for this week ends with one of the most haunting lines in the New Testament. Jesus says, "when the Son of man returns, will he find faith o...

There is No Chaining the Word of God!

10 Oct 2004

Contributed by Lukas

This week we once more hear from Paul's second letter to Timothy. He writes to his young friend from prison, chained in place by the Roman authorities...

No Cowardly Spirit

03 Oct 2004

Contributed by Lukas

We hear this week from St. Paul's second letter to Timothy. Paul, the old warrior, is passing on to his young disciple words of advice and encourageme...

Amos's Challenge

26 Sep 2004

Contributed by Lukas

We hear from the prophet Amos in our first reading for this Sunday. Amos stands at the very beginning of the great prophetic tradition of social justi...

See, Judge, and Act

19 Sep 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel for this week contains one of Jesus' most surprising and comical parables, the story of the unjust steward. Jesus finds something to praise...

A God of Relentless Mercy

12 Sep 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The God of the Bible is infinitely demanding and infinitely merciful. Jesus said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," and he taught us to...

Spiritual Shock Therapy

05 Sep 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The world of grasping, competition, violence, and egotism is the "real" world, right? And if I were to suggest that we can live in radical non-violenc...

The Trouble With Honor

29 Aug 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Some people organize their lives around the love of money; others do so around the love of pleasure or power. Still others make honor--the esteem of o...

Training in the Divine School

22 Aug 2004

Contributed by Lukas

In the years following the Second Vatican Council, we became very hesitant ever to invoke the category of the divine punishment. Yet, this motif can b...

Walking the Path of Faith

08 Aug 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our second reading this week is from the 11th chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, and it concerns that central virtue of the Christian life: faith. ...

The Wisdom of Qoheleth

01 Aug 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our first reading for this Sunday is taken from the wonderful book of Ecclesiastes. This Biblical text is made up of the cranky reflections of Qohelet...

The Ways of Prayer

25 Jul 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The Bible speaks often of prayer, that intimate communion and conversation with God. Our readings for this Sunday present, if I can put it this way, t...

The One Thing Necessary

18 Jul 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Both our first reading and Gospel for this week speak of the importance of keeping our attention riveted on God. The three angels visit Abraham, and h...

The Good Samaritan

11 Jul 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the Good Samaritan is not merely a morality tale, an account of the kind of life we should lead. It is that, but, at the deepest level, i...

A Portrait of the Church

04 Jul 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel reading for this Sunday is the account of Jesus' sending of the seventy-two disciples. In the instructions he gives them, we can discern an...

Elijah, You're Fired!

27 Jun 2004

Contributed by Lukas

In the stories of the prophets Elijah and Elisha we clearly see the great Biblical theme of vocation and election. Our lives our not about us; it is n...

They Shall Look on Him Whom They Have Pierced

20 Jun 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The book of the prophet Zechariah provides a sort of interpretive key for the life and ministry of Jesus. It tells us what the Messiah would do and wh...

Jesus Yesterday, Today, and Forever!

13 Jun 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Paul tells us that whenever we eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord, we proclaim his death until he comes. This means that the Eucharist invol...

The Three-Personed God

06 Jun 2004

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend, we celebrate the Trinity, a mystery which stands at the very heart of the faith. The doctrine of the Trinity is a technical way of stati...

Come, Holy Spirit

30 May 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The two great symbols of the descent of the Holy Spirit are wind and tongues of fire. Wind is powerful, unpredictable, destructive, like the Spirit wh...

The Ascension of the Lord

23 May 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The feast of the Ascension is meant to awaken hope. In Jesus, risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, our lowly human nature...

Paul's Basic Message

16 May 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Last week we explored the central teaching of St. Paul: to live in Christ Jesus. This week, we draw out four implications from this teaching: the corp...

Being in Christ

09 May 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Last week we looked at the life and times of Paul, the person who, after Jesus himself, is the most influential figure in the formation of the Christi...

Paul the Apostle

02 May 2004

Contributed by Lukas

During the Easter season, we are reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Though John, Philip, Peter, and James are all featured in Acts, th...

Victory Day

11 Apr 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Easter is the dawn of a new creation. St. John tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early on the morning of the first day of the week. This i...

The Lesson of the Prodigal Son

21 Mar 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most memorable, carefully crafted, and inspiring stories ever told. In some ways, the whole of the Ch...

The Adventure of Faith

07 Mar 2004

Contributed by Lukas

We have a God of adventure, a God who is always out ahead of us. Faith, in the Biblical sense of the term, is not primarily the acquiesence to proposi...

Jesus is Tempted in the Desert

29 Feb 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert in order to be tempted by the devil. The three temptations--to sensual pleasure, to power, and to pride-...

Four Reasons to Love Your Enemies

22 Feb 2004

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most challenging and disconcerting of Jesus' commands is to love our enemies. In this sermon, I will explore four reasons why this moral de...

Blessed Detachment

15 Feb 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Detachment is a key theme in the spiritual masters. It means that we must detach ourselves from all of those created goods--sex, money, power, pleasur...

The Strange Path of Love

01 Feb 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our second reading for Mass this weekend is one of the most beautiful and oft-quoted in the Biblical tradition: Paul's hymn to love in the 13th chapte...

The Lessons of Nehemiah

25 Jan 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Our first reading for this week is taken from the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. Nehemiah returned from exile in order to rebuild the walls of...

The Great Wedding

18 Jan 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The prophet Isaiah expresses the conviction of ancient Israel that God wants to marry his people, which is to say, to share his life fully with them. ...

More on Christ and the World Religions

11 Jan 2004

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, I spoke of the many "family resemblances" between Christianity and the other great religious traditions. This week, I look at the other sid...

The Great Reversal

28 Dec 2003

Contributed by Lukas

Jesus turns upside-down a world turned upside-down by sin--and thereby sets it right. This subversive quality of the Lord is disclosed in the Luke's m...

Three Advent Lessons

21 Dec 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The readings for the final Sunday of Advent present us with three essential lessons. First, in the Biblical perspective, great things come from the sm...

Gaudete!

14 Dec 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice! Sunday. God is a community of joy and the purpose of creation and redempti...

The Steadfast Love of God

07 Dec 2003

Contributed by Lukas

Everything in nature, culture, and the cosmos is passing away. Nothing here below finally lasts. Though certainly sobering, this is not, ultimately, b...

Feast of Christ the King

23 Nov 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The final Sunday of the Liturgical year is dedicated to Christ the King. One of the earliest forms of Christian proclamation was "Jesus is Lord." This...

The End of the World

16 Nov 2003

Contributed by Lukas

In our rather apocalypic Gospel for today, Jesus is not so much predicting the end of the space-time continuum as he is showing that a new world arriv...

Praying For All the Dead

09 Nov 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The Catholic Faith inculcates in us a deep sense of our connection to the dead. They are present to us in memory of course, but also through their pra...

Commemorating the Faithful Departed

02 Nov 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The Catholic Faith inculcates in us a deep sense of our connection to the dead. They are present to us in memory of course, but also through their pra...

A Ransom for the Many

19 Oct 2003

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to say that Jesus died for our sins? How precisely does his cross save us? The first Christians saw sin as a sort of imprisonment, l...

The Rich Young Man

12 Oct 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The Gospel story of the conversation between Jesus and the rich young man is one of John Paul II's favorites and is featured in many of his writings. ...

God's Grace and the Structures of the Church

28 Sep 2003

Contributed by Lukas

The structures of the Catholic religion are deeply rooted in the tradition and flow, ultimately, from the will of God. They are the ordinary channels ...

Unless You Change and Become Like a Little Child

21 Sep 2003

Contributed by Lukas

Children are like plants, rocks, and flowers in this sense: they don't know how to be something that they are not. They haven't yet learned to lie, di...

He So loved the World

14 Sep 2003

Contributed by Lukas

Today's feast, the Triumph of the Cross, is one of those remarkable Christian paradoxes. To describe an unspeakably brutal execution as a "triumph" se...

Meaning of the Miracles

07 Sep 2003

Contributed by Lukas

Our Gospel story today concerns a man who is deaf and dumb. He is symbolically evocative of an Israel that had grown deaf to God's word and, according...