Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

The story of Zacchaeus in the Gospel of Luke is a kind of spiritual itinerary. If we attend to it carefully, we will learn the essentials of the life of grace.

The second letter to Timothy is Paul's parting advice to his young colleague and spiritual son. He speaks of being poured out like a libation, of being ready for a great journey, of having fought the good fight and run the successful race. All of these images are illuminating for us as well.

An awful lot of people probably find our first reading for this week offensive. We hear that Israel mowed the Amalekites down with the sword. How can this terrible story of conquest be a revelation of God's intentions? Listen as I offer the surprising interpretation that Origen of Alexandria offers.

The story of Naaman the Syrian is not terribly well-known, but it contains some marvelous spiritual lessons for all of us. It tells us of the importance of patience, humility, perseverance, prayer--and above all following our weakness as it leads us to God.

The prophet Habbakuk expresses what most of us feel at some point in our lives: how can God be so indifferent to suffering? Listen carefully to the answer he receives from the Lord.

Another homily from Fr. Robert Barron and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

Another homily from Fr. Robert Barron and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

God does not love as we do, in a calculating manner. He makes his sun to shine on the good and the bad alike and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. This means that he is like the Good Shepherd who seeks even the one sheep who is lost and like the father who welcomes back even the prodigal.

Jesus tells us that we must get rid of all of our possessions, including the people that we have turned into possessions. It is in this sense that he encourages us to "hate our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters." In the measure that these nearest and dearest are possessions of one's ego, they are a block to salvation.

The lust for honor interrupts the great banquet that God wants us to enjoy. This is why Jesus interrupts the interruption in today's Gospel, urging people purposely to take the lowest place and to entertain only those who cannot repay the favor. We must free ourselves of the addiction to honor!