Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies
Episodes
How Great Is Your Faith
17 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the persistent Canaanite woman has intrigued and puzzled Christians for two thousand years. Why would Jesus treat this pious woman with w...
Elijah and Peter
10 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Elijah is a contemplative who has the eyes to see and the ears to listen. God does not appear in the glory of the world. Rather, he appears in a silen...
Grace
03 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Our readings for this weekend are filled with grace, the free gift that God is. Our relationship with God gets off on the wrong foot the moment we see...
Solomon's Prayer
27 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
God says to Solomon in our first reading, "Ask for anything, and I will give it to you." What would you say if you heard that invitation? Solomon asks...
Three Parables; Three Spiritual Lessons
20 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus' parables in today's Gospel tell us how and why the Kingdom of God emerges. It does so often through struggle, quietly and clandestinely, and th...
The Prodigal Sower
13 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
God sows his Word into each of our hearts liberally. He does not solely give his grace to those he knows will bear fruit. He sows the Word in everyone...
The Yoke's On Me
06 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
What is it like to have Christ for a king? All three of this Sunday's readings examine this very question in some way. The answer is to submit to his ...
Peter and Paul
29 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week gives us an opportunity to reflect on the legacies of Peter and Paul, two of the most important figures in the history of the Church. While ...
Bread in the Desert
22 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
All of us are on a spiritual journey from sin to salvation. Like the Israelites longing for a return to Egypt, many of us occasionally desire our old ...
Drink of the Holy Spirit
08 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone thirsts for the divine life. No one is content without it, even proclaimed secularists. Christ has come to give us that life and he calls us ...
Meeting of Heaven and Earth
01 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The mysterious and wonderful feast of the Ascension of the Lord which celebrates Christ glorified "at the right hand of the Father". The key to unlock...
The Spirit of Truth
25 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This Easter season, the Church has asked us to meditate on the Acts of the Apostles. Today Jesus tells us to wait for the coming of the Spirit, which ...
Temple Talk
18 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week's readings all have to do with the holy temple in Jerusalem. The temple was the meeting place of divinity and humanity and was the focal poi...
The Great Hope of Easter
20 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Easter Sunday represents God's great yes to humanity. Throughout history, humanity has turned its back on God, but the Lord has constantly sent rescue...
Treating Death as a Trifle
06 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week's Gospel tells the story of Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead. In this story we learn that sin is a kind of death, and that Jes...
Coming to See
30 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week's Gospel from John tells us the story of the man born blind. Jesus offers the blind man healing and the man accepts Jesus and is conformed t...
What is the Matter With Us?
09 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The first reading for this week is the section of Genesis which describes the creation of humans and their fall from grace. The readings in the first ...
Extreme Demand, Extreme Mercy
16 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Gospel, Jesus intensifies the moral law and raises the bar higher than it ever had been. Christ's goal, and the Church's goal, is to ma...
Salt, Light, and a City Set on a Hill
09 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares his disciples to salt, light, and a city set on a hill. All these things exist not for the...
The Presentation of the Lord
02 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. In ancient Israel the Temple was the most important place in the world...
Land of Zebulon, Land of Naphtali
26 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week's reading from the prophet Isaiah emphasizes God's tendency to bring the best from the worst situations, light from the darkness. Throughout...
Isaiah and Paul
19 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This week's readings reveal Isaiah and Paul as missionaries, as evangelists. Isaiah's mission is to unite the people of Israel, and then spread the sa...
The Slave of Christ
22 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's second reading is the beginning of st. Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul identifies himself as the slave of Jesus. His has given his entir...
Eden, The Mountain, and The One Who Baptizes with Fire
08 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's readings take us to chapter 11 of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah looks back to the garden of Eden and the world in right alignment with God, a...
The Mountain of the Lord
01 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week we enter into the great season of Advent. Our first reading from the prophet Isaiah describes how every nation streams towards God's holy mo...
Apocalypse and the Resurrection
17 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
As the liturgical year comes towards its end the Church considers apocalyptic Scriptures. This week's Gospel from Luke reveal the full significance of...
The Resurrection of the Body
10 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's reading from second Maccabees and Luke's gospel are wonderful meditations on the resurrection of the body. In second Maccabees seven broth...
The Hard Texts of the Old Testament
20 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Old Testament is full of violent accounts that seem contradictory to the idea of the merciful, compassionate God of the New Testament: Joshua exte...
Humility and the Healing Power of God
13 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's reading from 2 Kings 5 contains some wonderful lessons on humility and obedience. We all suffer from some pestilence, whether it be physic...
The Just Shall Live By Faith
06 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's reading the prophet Habbakuk questions the ways of God, quite understandably. The evils throughout the world can be discouraging, but e...
The Awful Gospel of the Cross
08 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's Gospel contains one of the greatest challenges Jesus ever offered to his disciples: "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and m...
Humility: The Queen of the Virtues
01 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's readings focus on the importance of humility. Humility is the foundation for the whole of spirituality. In order to truly pursue truth and...
I Have Come to Cast a Fire Upon the Earth
18 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus' words from our Gospel this week inspired the name for my program, Word on Fire. Jesus speaks of the divine judgment that will fall like a clean...
Faith and the Reasoning of the Religious Mind
11 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
God cannot be analyzed scientifically the way one would study the things of the world, but God can be approached through religious reasoning, or Faith...
The Great Yes and The Great No
04 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Very often we find ourselves drawn towards extremes: puritanism or hedonism, idolizing the world or demonizing the world. The proper Catholic balance ...
Kingdom Prayer
28 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
How central is the Lord's Prayer to Christianity! Basically this prayer is about ordering ourselves to God and letting his way of being order all leve...
Boasting in the Cross
07 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
St. Paul tells us in our second reading that he boasts in the cross of Jesus. To any of his hearers in the first century this would have sounded like ...
The Sin of David
16 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today's first reading describes the sin of David with Bathsheba, David's attempts to cover up his crime, and the subsequent punishment for his sin. Ev...
Making Something From Nothing
09 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's readings are for the people who feel that they have no hope. Even in the darkest of times, God can create something from nothing and can b...
The Gift of the Eucharist
02 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Church comes from the Eucharist for it is the sacrifice that makes saints. The Eucharist is essentially the fullest act of gratitude prefigured in...
Pentecost and Sinai
19 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week is the great feast of Pentecost. Christ rules his Church from Heaven by sending his Spirit into the Church all over the world. We participat...
No Temple in the New Jerusalem
05 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's reading from the Book of Revelation the narrator describes the arrival of the Holy City of the New Jerusalem. The visionary sees a grea...
Fishers of Men
14 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today's reading from the Gospel of John offers a compelling meditation about the importance of Christ for the activities of the Church. Christians are...
Every Saint Had a Past, Every Sinner Has a Future
17 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This week's scriptures present the hope of moving forward. All of us have sins and vices in our past. Christ offers us the possibility for forgiveness...
The Prodigal Son
10 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Gospel reading we hear the story of the Prodigal Son. Here, Christ provides a reflection on the nature of love and our relationship wit...
The More
24 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
There are moments in life when we sense that there is something more real, important and enduring than anything we normally experience. The story of t...
The Wedding Banquet that Overflows with Wine
20 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
We begin Ordinary Time with the wedding at Cana, a rich, spiritual story with great implications for the Church. Both weddings and wine are consistent...
A New Ark for a New Covenant
23 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The greatest and most revered of Israel's kings was David. It is from the family of David that the Messiah would come into the world and to the surpri...
Look to the Son of Man
02 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of this new liturgical year, we hear Luke's account of Jesus speaking about the end to all we believe to be permanent - the earth, the sk...
True Kingship
25 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the liturgical year, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. But Christ's kingship is different from any with which we're familiar - ...
The Good News of the Apocalypse
18 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Today's readings deal with the end of time and the great cosmic battle. In the Gospels, Christ fights against the powers of darkness, defeats them thr...
Hear, O Israel
04 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Our first reading for Mass this week contains the defining prayer of the Jewish tradition: the “Sh’ma.” In the Gospel, when asked which command...
Seeing the World Anew
28 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
This Sunday's Gospel presents the extraordinary story of Christ's healing Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is blind. Christ gives him not only the ability to se...
True Ambition
21 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In today's Gospel, the apostles James and John ask Jesus to be given positions of glory in Christ's kingdom. Jesus reminds us that His moment of glory...
Envy and Ambition
23 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The danger of jealousy and envy is that it is as much damaging to others as it is to ourselves. When we are envious, or even ambitious for the purpose...
The Dilemma of the Law
02 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
One of the great tensions in the spiritual life is between loving the law and being free of the law. I argue in this homily that learning to swing a g...
Really, Truly, and Substantially Present
26 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The Lord Jesus is not speaking metaphorically about eating his flesh and drinking his blood - he has come to make of his own Body and Blood real food ...
The Word of God Made Flesh
19 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Today's Gospel comes again from the sixth chapter of John. Here Christ discusses the necessity and reality of the Eucharist as the Word of God made Fl...
The Bread of Life, The Body of Christ
12 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Today's readings are from First Kings and the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. Our passage for this weekend discusses the Eucharist as the necessary an...
The Twelve and the New Israel
15 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Mark relays the story of Jesus giving the Twelve Apostles their "marching orders," the instructions on how they would go out and spread the...
A Thorn in the Flesh: Why We Suffer
08 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Saint Paul conveys a unique and powerful perspective on suffering. What he called a "thorn in the flesh," was a suffering so great that it burdened hi...
Faith and the Law
01 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The Book of Leviticus outlines laws, practices and directives of things, people and animals that are unclean and shouldn't be touched. But Jesus decis...
He Must Increase and I Must Decrease
24 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
John the Baptist is one of the most important figures in Christianity, and provides a window into the tradition of the Jewish priesthood and the histo...
The New Temple
10 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
To truly understand the significance of the Mass, we must understand the importance of blood sacrifice to Judaism in Jesus' time. On Yom Kippur, the h...
Life Lived in the Spirit
03 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The Holy Spirit thrives on the actions we take and decisions we make out of love, joy, peace, patience and more. These aren't abstract ideas that resu...
Living the Flesh, Living the Spirit
27 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
St. Paul illuminates what it means to live in the Holy Spirit, acting and living out of love, and what it means to live outside of it, acting and livi...
Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
20 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus was the meeting of heaven and earth. His Ascension returned him to God in order to reign as the world's new king, and his orders to the disciple...
Love Both Conditional and Unconditional
13 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
We are often mistaken in thinking that we have to love God in order for God to love us. That's not the case. God doesn't need our love; his love for u...
Resurrection and the Forgiveness of Sins
22 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
St. Peter's impassioned sermon in the temple precincts condemned the people for killing the "author of life", but further explains that Jesus' resurre...
Life in the Church
15 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples, fearful they were to be targeted next, to deliver a message of peace with a mission. This is the missi...
The Return of the King
01 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Entering Holy Week, we see numerous stirring examples of Jesus' fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. From the direction he enters Jerusalem to his...
Listen to Him
04 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most unsettling accounts in the Bible, that of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son, ironically shows His goodness and love for ...
Jesus Among the Angels and Beasts
26 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Lent begins with a passage about Noah and flood. It's representative of not only sin, but of God's good grace. It's also a fitting entree into Jesus' ...
I Am Doing Something New!
19 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
This Sunday's Gospel tells the story of the paralytic man whom Jesus forgave and commanded to walk. Paralysis is an effective allegory for sin-how it ...
All Are One in God
12 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The leper in Mark's gospel, a feared presence to the ancient Israelites, is made clean by Jesus' benevolent touch. A connection is formed, to each oth...
He Speaks With Authority
29 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In Mark's gospel, we see find Jesus exorcising an unclean spirit from a man in the temple, doing so as both the messenger and the message. Jesus unite...
The Spiritual Drama of Jonah
22 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
A divine calling, whether the meaning is revealed in this life or the next, always requires our biblical heroes to do more than they feel they are cap...
Staying With the Lord
15 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When we witness something beautiful, something important, we desire to share it with others, just as St. John did when he said to his disciples, "Beho...
Herod and the Magi
08 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Herod sees all from the confines of his ego, trying to make the world conform to his plans. The Magi look outside of themselves, looking for an order ...
In the Beginning was the Word
25 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The Prologue of the Gospel of John sums up the whole of the Christian message. It tells the story of a re-creation through the Word made flesh. All wi...
Adam, David, and Jesus
18 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Adam had a kingly mission. However, he became a bad king. David was meant to restore kingship to its proper form. However, he failed too. But Christ, ...
Language Fit for a King
20 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Fr. Barron comments on the new Roman Missal. This new translation is more fit for the celebration of the liturgy because it helps us address Christ in...
The Great Spiritual Law
13 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The great spiritual law is the law of the gift. Although counter-intuitive, it is the way of the Spirit. Giving your life away for love increases life...
Three Tasks of the Church
23 Oct 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Christ calls us to worship the Father, teach and evangelize in his name, and serve and care for him in the poor. The Church is the Body through, in an...
The Wedding Feast
09 Oct 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus tells the story of a King who is inviting people to the wedding banquet for his Son. Some ignore it. Some actively kill the messengers. But this...
Parable of the Tenants
02 Oct 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The parable of the tenants is an allegory that presents the relationship of Israel to Christ, but more than this it reveals a necessary truth about th...
Let Go Rather than Grasp
25 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The magnificent hymn in the Letter to the Philippians reveals that at the heart of the Gospel is the mystery that the Lord Jesus did not grasp or clin...
Seeing the World from God's Perspective
18 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes Christ does not seem fair. The Parable of the Day Laborers evokes this sense of injustice. Those who do not work as long and hard as the oth...
The Gates of Hell
21 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
In the eyes of the world, the Christian way of being is strange. All Christians are called out of the world and into a new way: Christ's way. Christia...
The Little Ones
03 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The purpose of Jesus' teachings is that we allow the divine life to surge through us so that we become transformed in Christ, making us more like Him....
The God Who Is Love
19 Jun 2011
Contributed by Lukas
God is Trinity. He is fundamentally a relationship: a lover, a beloved and the love between them. In other words, God is a complete openness and recep...
The Spirit of Power and of Truth
29 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The Scriptures for this Sunday offer some glimpse of the Holy Spirit in advance of the great feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is the heavenly grace...
The Co-Inherence of the Mystical Body
22 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
No man is an island. One of the messages of the Gospel is that all reality is interconnected. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. How organic t...
The Shepherd's Voice
15 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
God speaks to us in many ways, especially though the conscience. Since God is a Person, his voice will reach our consciences and lure us to conform ou...
The Road to Emmaus
08 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Like the two disciples walking towards Emmaus, a symbol of worldly power and security, and away from Jerusalem, the center of sacrifice, we need to be...
The Risen Christ in the Midst of His Church
01 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus has come to bring us the divine life. Under his influence we become peaceful, unafraid, evangelizing, and forgiving. Through the Church, saints ...
He Is Risen!
24 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Our first reading for this Easter day is Peter's great kerygmatic speech on Pentecost morning. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter addresses the Jerusa...
Lazarus and the Power of Death
10 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Death is not a condition God desires for us . Rather, God wants us to have life. However, death is a reality; but it is not the final word. Christ is ...
Coming to Spiritual Vision
03 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The healing of a man blind from birth is an archetypal story of coming to spiritual vision. Sin prevents us from seeing clearly. Christ is the light a...
One Who Is Greater Than Our Father Jacob
27 Mar 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Christ's encounter with the Samaritan woman is a kind of template by which we can understand our own encounter with the Lord.