# What Life Is All About - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 14 Aug 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73911061/what_life_is_all_about_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends. We come to the seventeenth
[0:03] Speaker 1: Sunday of ordinary time, and we're gonna finish our reading
[0:06] Speaker 1: of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, that great chapter
[0:10] Speaker 1: dealing with the parables, and gosh, the ones we hear
[0:14] Speaker 1: today are are so fine. As I mentioned last week,
[0:17] Speaker 1: there's a tendency to write the parables off as you know,
[0:20] Speaker 1: nice little stories with a moral, and they're you know,
[0:22] Speaker 1: kind of charming. No, no, the parables are cutting to
[0:26] Speaker 1: the heart of the matter many ways. It's Jesus' kind
[0:29] Speaker 1: of preferred way of conveying the truths of the kingdom.
[0:32] Speaker 1: And these are really good examples. The ones today are
[0:35] Speaker 1: all about the summum bonum, the highest good, and therefore
[0:41] Speaker 1: they're about what's most fundamental in the spiritual life. You
[0:46] Speaker 1: could argue the entire Bible is about this theme. I've
[0:50] Speaker 1: said the master theme of the Bible is right worship.
[0:53] Speaker 1: And see that's the same thing you worship. Worship what
[0:57] Speaker 1: you think is of highest good. Highest tell you the
[1:00] Speaker 1: summum bonum. So what is that? And how do you
[1:03] Speaker 1: get your lives ordered to It? Makes all the difference, right,
[1:07] Speaker 1: That's what these are about. So the first one, Jesus said,
[1:12] Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in
[1:15] Speaker 1: a field, which a person finds and hides again, and
[1:19] Speaker 1: out of joy goes and sells all that he has
[1:23] Speaker 1: and buys that field. It's a cool image, and we're
[1:26] Speaker 1: not going to get it right away. But in the
[1:28] Speaker 1: ancient world before you know, insurance companies and all that,
[1:31] Speaker 1: when people laughed for whatever reason, maybe there was an
[1:34] Speaker 1: enemy army coming or whatever, they would bury Sometimes they're
[1:39] Speaker 1: valuables in the field, hoping that you know, eventually they'd
[1:43] Speaker 1: come back and they'd be able to recover them. Well,
[1:45] Speaker 1: then you know who knows that they were killed or
[1:47] Speaker 1: they were distracted. They never came back, and that treasure
[1:51] Speaker 1: remained buried in the field until maybe many many years later,
[1:56] Speaker 1: as farmer comes along plowing and comes across the treasure.
[2:00] Speaker 1: That's the image here, So something you come upon that
[2:03] Speaker 1: suddenly you realize this is an enormous value, in fact,
[2:06] Speaker 1: such great value. I'm going to sell everything I've got
[2:09] Speaker 1: to buy that field, or the Kingdom of Heaven is
[2:14] Speaker 1: like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds
[2:17] Speaker 1: a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all
[2:21] Speaker 1: that he has and buys it. See, everybody, this is life.
[2:26] Speaker 1: This is what it's about. Do you muster the capacity
[2:32] Speaker 1: in your life to say, now that I found the
[2:36] Speaker 1: summum bonum, the highest good, the pearl, the treasure, I'm
[2:41] Speaker 1: willing to sacrifice or relativize or set aside everything else.
[2:50] Speaker 1: If I don't do that. Now will come at the
[2:52] Speaker 1: end of the story. We'll come to what happens. This
[2:55] Speaker 1: is the whole drama of the spiritual life. Can you
[2:59] Speaker 1: muster the capacity to order your life properly to the
[3:03] Speaker 1: sumum bonum? Okay, you see, I get that. I get that,
[3:07] Speaker 1: But what is it? How do I find it? What
[3:10] Speaker 1: is the treasure? What is the pearl of great price? Well,
[3:14] Speaker 1: let me rely here on both Pascal the great French mathematicians,
[3:19] Speaker 1: scientists and philosopher, and kirkagar the great nineteenth century mysterious
[3:25] Speaker 1: philosophical thinker. They both say something similar, really about three
[3:30] Speaker 1: stages of life, for three stages of value. Call them
[3:37] Speaker 1: the goods of the body, the goods of the mind,
[3:41] Speaker 1: and then the goods of the heart. What are the
[3:45] Speaker 1: goods of the body? Well, all those values associated with
[3:50] Speaker 1: sensual pleasure. So food and drink and sex and other
[3:54] Speaker 1: forms of sensual delight are those good things? Yes, I
[3:59] Speaker 1: said a million times. Catholics aren't puritans. We like the body.
[4:02] Speaker 1: We like the goods of the body. We're in favor
[4:05] Speaker 1: of food and drink and sex and sensual pleasure. They're
[4:07] Speaker 1: all good things. Whatever God makes is good. The ensemble
[4:11] Speaker 1: very good. So we like all these things. They're good.
[4:15] Speaker 1: But listen, not everybody. They're not the summum bonum. They're
[4:22] Speaker 1: not the highest good. Now, I mean, Plato understood this.
[4:25] Speaker 1: This is a very ancient perception. Why aren't they the
[4:29] Speaker 1: summum bone. If you're a hedonist, right, you think they
[4:33] Speaker 1: are the summum bonum. That's what life's all about. Eat,
[4:36] Speaker 1: drink and be merry. That's what life's all about, getting
[4:39] Speaker 1: as much pleasure as you can. But what if sages
[4:43] Speaker 1: across the ages realized, well, how ephemeral, how fleeting these
[4:50] Speaker 1: goods are. I'm gonna give you an example. When I
[4:53] Speaker 1: was in Santa Barbara. I was there for six years,
[4:55] Speaker 1: loved it, lived in a beautiful that beautiful city. And
[4:58] Speaker 1: one thing I love to do is there mountains right
[5:01] Speaker 1: near my house and I could just walk a little
[5:03] Speaker 1: bit and enter a mountain trail and there's this good,
[5:06] Speaker 1: challenging walk kind of up the mountain. I get to
[5:09] Speaker 1: the top of this good exercise, I could see Santa Barbara,
[5:12] Speaker 1: I could see the Pacific Ocean. I'd walk down this
[5:15] Speaker 1: beautiful hill and I'd get back home. I get a
[5:18] Speaker 1: tall glass of ice water, and I would sit down
[5:21] Speaker 1: in my comfortable chair on the back porch, and my
[5:23] Speaker 1: back porch looked up at the mountains and I'd sit
[5:26] Speaker 1: down and after that good exercise and the endorphins have
[5:29] Speaker 1: been released, right, and then I'm sipping the water and
[5:33] Speaker 1: at that moment, looking up the mountains surrounding my beautiful things,
[5:37] Speaker 1: I think this is bliss. You know, this is just it.
[5:40] Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Then a few minutes later,
[5:46] Speaker 1: the water's gone, and Okay, that was great, and I'm,
[5:51] Speaker 1: you know, waiting for my next thing. What else am
[5:54] Speaker 1: I gonna do? Like all sensual pleasure, it came and
[5:59] Speaker 1: it went great, and then it passes. Think of every
[6:05] Speaker 1: meal you've ever eaten, and the best meal you've ever eaten,
[6:08] Speaker 1: the best one surrounded my friend's nice cigar afterwards, and
[6:13] Speaker 1: then the meal's over and Okay, feel kind of stuffed.
[6:18] Speaker 1: My clothes smell like cigars. Maybe I'm leaving a little
[6:22] Speaker 1: bit sick from that dinner. You know, sensual pleasure. It happens,
[6:26] Speaker 1: and then it's over. I've told you before about my
[6:31] Speaker 1: addiction to popcorns. Just today, before I came over here,
[6:34] Speaker 1: I had lunch. I have a very simple one soup
[6:36] Speaker 1: and a little bit of chicken and cheese, and I
[6:39] Speaker 1: was still a little bit hungry, and so I got
[6:41] Speaker 1: this bowl of popcorn, and you know, and I'm eating popcorn.
[6:44] Speaker 1: The first couple ICs like, I mean, heaven, I love it.
[6:47] Speaker 1: I just love it. But then of course I ate
[6:49] Speaker 1: the whole bowl of popcorn. And afterwards, think the kernels
[6:53] Speaker 1: stuck in your teeth and your mouth's kind of greasy,
[6:56] Speaker 1: and you got popcorn on your that's bodily. Pleasures are
[7:01] Speaker 1: like that. They come and they go. Wise people realize
[7:06] Speaker 1: they're not the summum bonum. They're not the treasure, they're
[7:09] Speaker 1: not the pearl of great price. They're good, but they're
[7:13] Speaker 1: not summum bonum. Okay, from the goods of the body
[7:17] Speaker 1: to the goods of the mind. Now this is interesting.
[7:20] Speaker 1: As you mature and you get a broader experience of things.
[7:24] Speaker 1: You realize there are certain goods that are access through
[7:27] Speaker 1: the mind that are more substantial, less even essent, than
[7:32] Speaker 1: the mere goods of the body. Think now, someone, mathematics
[7:36] Speaker 1: and science, and literature and philosophy. These goods of the
[7:40] Speaker 1: mind that give you access to deep and abiding truths
[7:44] Speaker 1: about the world. You know you have and Plato's all this.
[7:47] Speaker 1: You have stepped out of the ordinary world of sense, experience,
[7:51] Speaker 1: the goods of the body, to a higher plane. The
[7:54] Speaker 1: great story here is Alexander the Great and Diogenes the Philosopher.
[7:58] Speaker 1: So the story, if it's not true, it should be
[8:00] Speaker 1: right that Diogenes is there on a sunny day and
[8:04] Speaker 1: he's drawing figures in the ground. He's doing mathematical calculations.
[8:08] Speaker 1: And Alexander the Great had just conquered his town and
[8:11] Speaker 1: he'd heard about this great stage. So Alexander comes and
[8:14] Speaker 1: he stands next to Diogenes, who's on the ground, and
[8:17] Speaker 1: he says, you know, I am Alexander. I've just conquered
[8:20] Speaker 1: your city. What can I do for you? And the
[8:23] Speaker 1: philosopher responded, you can get out of my light. He
[8:27] Speaker 1: was blocking the light, you know, for these things on
[8:32] Speaker 1: the ground. What does that show you that he was saying, look, man,
[8:36] Speaker 1: I know you, and give me any sensual pleasure I want.
[8:40] Speaker 1: I mean, you're the great Alexander, but I don't want
[8:42] Speaker 1: those things. I'm not interested in those things. I moved
[8:45] Speaker 1: to a higher plane, right or. One of my favorite
[8:48] Speaker 1: stories is of Thomas Aquinas, my hero, is that he
[8:51] Speaker 1: and these brother Dominicans were coming back from a journey
[8:54] Speaker 1: and they were approaching city of Paris, which was seen
[8:56] Speaker 1: in the Middle Ages as it is today, one of
[8:58] Speaker 1: the great cities in Europe. And they came to this
[9:01] Speaker 1: ridge and they suddenly saw the city and all its splendor,
[9:04] Speaker 1: and one of the brothers said, oh, what wouldn't you
[9:06] Speaker 1: give for that city? And ITAs said, I give the
[9:09] Speaker 1: whole thing if I could just get that Chris System
[9:12] Speaker 1: commentary on Matthew. We're reading Matthew's gospel here. Well, what
[9:17] Speaker 1: that tells you was Thomas Aquinas, I mean, he wasn't
[9:19] Speaker 1: beguiled by the sensual pleasures that could come from, you know,
[9:23] Speaker 1: of ruling the city of Paris. He wanted Christystem's commentary.
[9:28] Speaker 1: He had moved from the mere goods of the body
[9:30] Speaker 1: to the goods of the mind. Okay, have we found
[9:34] Speaker 1: the sumam bonum? Not yet, not yet. I mean, look,
[9:38] Speaker 1: even those goods of the mind, philosophy, science, mathematics, they
[9:42] Speaker 1: give us access to certain truths. But we know this.
[9:45] Speaker 1: You answer one question, you got ten more, answer those,
[9:48] Speaker 1: you got one hundred more. Whatever truth you come to
[9:52] Speaker 1: by means of these sciences, well, it's not the totality
[9:55] Speaker 1: of truth that the mind is looking for. Lanagan said
[9:59] Speaker 1: that right then, wants to know everything about everything. It's
[10:02] Speaker 1: not satisfied by particular truths. So the goods of the mind,
[10:07] Speaker 1: they're good, very good. They're not the summum bonum. What's
[10:11] Speaker 1: the sumum bonum? But Pascal would call that the goods
[10:15] Speaker 1: of the heart what Kirkergar would call the properly religious
[10:20] Speaker 1: dimension of life. When the soul, the heart is opened
[10:26] Speaker 1: up to God and to the things of God, what
[10:31] Speaker 1: have we found In God alone? We found the highest good,
[10:36] Speaker 1: not something as even essents as the goods of the world,
[10:40] Speaker 1: eating popcorn and relaxing after a great hike or whatever,
[10:45] Speaker 1: savoring a great meal or whatever. It is greater even
[10:49] Speaker 1: than whatever philosophy and science and math can give us.
[10:53] Speaker 1: God being itself, the source of existence, God, the infinite God.
[11:02] Speaker 1: Now we found the summumbonum, the highest good. Listen now
[11:07] Speaker 1: in relation to whom all the other goods find their place. See,
[11:13] Speaker 1: we don't have to play the game of I found God.
[11:17] Speaker 1: Therefore I'm rejecting everything else. No, no, seek ye first
[11:24] Speaker 1: the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest
[11:29] Speaker 1: will be given unto you. Now, with your loves properly ordered,
[11:35] Speaker 1: you can see the relationship between bodily goods, intellectual goods,
[11:40] Speaker 1: and the summum bonum. But see, the point is, everybody,
[11:44] Speaker 1: once you found the pearl of great price, don't mess
[11:48] Speaker 1: around with simulacra. Once you've found the treasure, sell everything else,
[11:53] Speaker 1: meaning don't treat anything else as the sumumbonum. Lord, the
[11:58] Speaker 1: God of Israel is a jealous God. That's what it means,
[12:01] Speaker 1: not that God's falling into a jealous snitch. He doesn't
[12:04] Speaker 1: have emotions the way we do. It means there's no
[12:06] Speaker 1: competition here. You can't have two highest goods. When you
[12:11] Speaker 1: find the summum bonum, relativize everything else in your life
[12:17] Speaker 1: and order it there. You know, a very good example
[12:22] Speaker 1: of this to me is the great Thomas Moore or
[12:26] Speaker 1: chancer of England, a man you know, who loved the
[12:29] Speaker 1: good things of the body. He had this manor house,
[12:32] Speaker 1: and he ate fine meals, and he was acquainted with
[12:35] Speaker 1: the most exalted spirits in Europe. And he knew the
[12:39] Speaker 1: goods of the body and of the mind, of course
[12:41] Speaker 1: he did. But when he was brought to the scaffold
[12:45] Speaker 1: because he had opposed Henry the Eighth, what did he say,
[12:48] Speaker 1: I die the King's good servant. Yeah, he was all
[12:52] Speaker 1: his life he was the King's good servant. He served
[12:55] Speaker 1: the political ends of England. Yeah, he believed in that
[12:58] Speaker 1: he was the King's good servant. But God's first right.
[13:03] Speaker 1: That's how it works. Seek he first the Kingdom of
[13:06] Speaker 1: God and his righteousness, and the rest will be given
[13:09] Speaker 1: unto you. What's the central tragedy of life? And I
[13:13] Speaker 1: make bold to say this without fear of contradiction. The
[13:16] Speaker 1: central tragy of human life, as Augustine put it, is
[13:19] Speaker 1: mistaking a creature for the creator. When I take anything creaturely,
[13:24] Speaker 1: a good of the of the body or the mind,
[13:26] Speaker 1: anything creaturely, and I make that my summum bonum. All
[13:32] Speaker 1: the trouble in life that we experience spiritually and psychologically,
[13:36] Speaker 1: everybody follows from that fatal move. Seek he first the
[13:43] Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. When you find the treasure, relativize everything else.
[13:49] Speaker 1: When you find the pearl by it, relativize everything else.
[13:55] Speaker 1: To get that right is to live as a citizen
[13:59] Speaker 1: of the Kingdom of God, and God bless you.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.