Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board

 

How Not to Think About Heaven - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Friends, the parable at the heart of our Gospel today from Matthew 20 is one of those passages in the New Testament that really bothers people. It proves that this parable is not just conveying correct information about God; it is reaching into our souls and doing spiritual work, shining light upon a certain darkness in us that resists him. And in this case, the darkness is a false view of what heaven is all about.

Watch How Not to Think About Heaven - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon here

 

Enter the Adventure - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Friends, today in our second reading, St. Paul says, “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.” In many ways, the whole Bible, the whole of revelation, is summed up in this statement. Yet everything in our culture militates against this: it’s all about your life, your choice, finding your voice, asserting your prerogatives. When we live in this little world, we remain stuck in a kind of permanent adolescence; when we live for the Lord, we enter into the adventure of being truly human.

Watch Enter the Adventure - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon video here

 

Are We Saved by Faith Alone? - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Friends, they say that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Well, today I’m going to rush in to some stormy waters by looking at the central issue of the Protestant Reformation: this issue of faith and works, or faith and the law. Martin Luther famously said that what he discovered in Paul is that we are justified or saved by faith alone. But why does the same Paul, in our second reading, say that "one who loves another has fulfilled the law"? The witness of the New Testament is richly complex on this question, and the Catholic position honors that richness and complexity.

Watch "Are We Saved by Faith Alone? - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon" video here

 

A Fire in the Heart - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Friends, our first reading for this weekend is from the twentieth chapter of Jeremiah. There is so much spiritual wisdom in Jeremiah, but more than any of the other prophets, we come to know his personality and his life. And in this passage, all the texture of being a prophet is on display: both the terror on every side and a fire burning in the heart—both the opposition of those who refuse to hear the Word and the irresistible desire to announce it.

Watch "A Fire in the Heart - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon" video here.

 

When God’s Ways Are Confusing – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, I do a lot of debating and dialoguing with agnostics and atheists, and very often, when they attack the faith, it's along the lines of: How could an all-knowing and all-good God allow (fill in the blank)? Why does he allow childhood leukemia, or natural catastrophes, or animal suffering? Much of the objection hinges upon the puzzle that is proposed by the existence of God. And we hear a classic answer from within the heart of our tradition today in our second reading from St. Paul to the Romans.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “When God’s Ways Are Confusing” on YouTube.

 

Chosen for the Sake of the World – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, our Gospel today from Matthew 15, the famous story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman, is one of those Gospels that bothers and unnerves people. How should we read it? It is not that Jesus was grouchy after a tough day of ministry and this plucky woman speaks truth to power to get what she wants. We are meant to read it in a much more subtle way. This story is driving at an issue that is central to the Bible—namely, the relationship bet

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “Chosen for the Sake of the World” on YouTube.

 

In the Storm? Look to Christ – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, our Gospel for today is Matthew’s account of the calming of the storm and the walking on the water. This is an event that reached very deeply into the hearts and minds of the first Christians. And the iconic representation in the Gospels shows us the theological and spiritual implications of this real event. It is an image of the Church, the barque of Peter, passing through the stormy times of life.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “In the Storm? Look to Christ” on YouTube.

 

The True King Has Come – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, it’s a wonderful grace that the Feast of the Transfiguration this year falls on Sunday. The first reading the Church gives us from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel might strike you as curious, but it’s very apropos. Daniel has a vision of four beasts rising from the sea, symbolic of four worldly kingdoms, each one being destroyed in preparation for a final kingdom—the kingdom of God. In Jesus’ time, they read these four kingdoms as Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. If you think this is just wild speculation that had nothing to do with Jesus, think again.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “The True King Has Come” on YouTube.

A Wise and Discerning Heart – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

 

Friends, our first reading is from the First Book of Kings, and it's one of my favorite passages in the entire Old Testament. If you're going on a retreat, spending a Holy Hour, or just wanting to get in touch with the Lord at the end of the day, it's a wonderful little passage to focus on. The setting is the early days of the reign of King Solomon, and the question it raises is this: If you could ask God for anything, what would you ask for?

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “A Wise and Discerning Heart” on YouTube.

 

The Parasite of Evil – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

 

Friends, we are reading during these weeks of summer from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which contains many of the great parables of Jesus. But I want to focus just on one today because it’s so rich both theologically and spiritually: the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Jesus’ story shows us how evil, by its very nature, is a corruption of the good. It is a parasite—and we need requisite care and patience in dealing with it.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “The Parasite of Evil” on YouTube.

 

God Has Spoken; Are You Listening? – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, our first reading and our Gospel today are about the word of God, both from God’s side as he speaks, and then from our side as we receive. God has spoken through creation, the prophets, the Scriptures—and, in the fullness of time, the very Word of God. If you open your mind and heart to the power of God’s word, it will change you.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “God Has Spoken; Are You Listening?” on YouTube.

 

Enter the Inner Life of God – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, the Gospel for this weekend from the eleventh chapter of Matthew contains a passage that has been called “Matthew’s most precious pearl.” “No one knows the Son except the Father,” Jesus exclaims, “and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” We are on very holy ground here because we are being invited into the very inner life of God.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “Enter the Inner Life of God” on YouTube.

 

You Can’t Be Neutral About Jesus – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Friends, there is no religious figure anywhere in the religions or philosophies of the world who is stranger, more demanding, more relentless, and more unnerving than Jesus. And therefore the religion attached to Jesus is the strangest of them all. Exhibit A is our Gospel from Matthew 10. What Jesus says to his Apostles about himself, no other spiritual teacher would say. And you can’t be neutral about it: you have make a decision about Jesus.

Watch Bishop Barron’s latest Sunday Sermon, “You Can’t Be Neutral About Jesus” on YouTube.