# 7 Ways to be Spiritually Great - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 5 Jul 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754546/7_ways_to_be_spiritually_great.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: It's a work of mercy. All of them are. That
[0:03] Speaker 1: means they're hard. If they were walking the park, we
[0:07] Speaker 1: wouldn't call them works of mercy. It's an effort. They're
[0:11] Speaker 1: in our sinful, fallen world, given my sinful condition, they're
[0:14] Speaker 1: always an effort.
[0:24] Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Brandon Vaught,
[0:27] Speaker 2: the host and the senior publishing director at Word on Fire.
[0:31] Speaker 2: We all strive to be spiritually great. We want to
[0:35] Speaker 2: be magnanimous men and women, great sould people. But how
[0:40] Speaker 2: do we get there? Well, the Church offers a concrete
[0:44] Speaker 2: sevenfold path and that's what we'll discuss today with Bishop
[0:47] Speaker 2: Robert Baron joining us from Rochester, Minnesota. Bishop, good to
[0:51] Speaker 2: see you as always.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Hey Brandon, good morning to you.
[0:54] Speaker 2: You just got back from your old stomping grounds in California.
[0:58] Speaker 2: You want to over there for a few day. Tell
[1:00] Speaker 2: us about that trip, what'd you do and how did
[1:02] Speaker 2: it go?
[1:03] Speaker 1: Yeah? I went really for two official reasons. One was
[1:06] Speaker 1: to preside at the wedding of Madeleine Lear and her husband.
[1:10] Speaker 1: Madeleine's the youngest daughter of the legendary TV producer Norman Lear,
[1:15] Speaker 1: whom I came to know a little bit when I
[1:16] Speaker 1: was out in California. And there's a touch of sadness,
[1:19] Speaker 1: you know. Madeleine got married a few days ago, and
[1:22] Speaker 1: just a few weeks before the wedding, her dad died,
[1:25] Speaker 1: So Norman was at the age of one hundred and one,
[1:29] Speaker 1: so it was kind of a poignancy to it. But
[1:31] Speaker 1: it was a lovely wedding at St. Monica's Church in
[1:34] Speaker 1: Santa Monica. So I saw a lot of my old
[1:36] Speaker 1: friends back there and presided at that wedding. Then a
[1:39] Speaker 1: few days later I confirmed Shia lebuff so Shi, as
[1:44] Speaker 1: many of our listeners know, I met when I was
[1:46] Speaker 1: in California. We did that interview that was viewed by
[1:50] Speaker 1: a lot of people. Well he's you know, hung in
[1:52] Speaker 1: there with his formation as a Catholic, and so he
[1:56] Speaker 1: petitioned for a confirmation and asked if I would do it.
[1:59] Speaker 1: So I went out there to the Lovely Mission of Santinez,
[2:02] Speaker 1: which I knew very well from my pastoral region. That's
[2:05] Speaker 1: where I first met Shia and presided at his confirmation,
[2:09] Speaker 1: which is very moving and a lovely event. So those
[2:13] Speaker 1: are the two official reasons I went back. And then
[2:15] Speaker 1: I saw a lot of my old buddies and friends
[2:17] Speaker 1: back there too.
[2:19] Speaker 2: Well, God bless Madeleine and her husband and Shia and
[2:22] Speaker 2: all of our friends back in California there.
[2:25] Speaker 1: Well.
[2:26] Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago we discussed the seven Corporal
[2:29] Speaker 2: Works of Mercy, and today we're going to discuss the
[2:33] Speaker 2: seven Spiritual Works of mercy, the sort of parallel grouping.
[2:37] Speaker 2: First of all, what's the connection between these two sets?
[2:41] Speaker 2: Is one more important than the other? Does one have
[2:44] Speaker 2: a higher priority in the eyes of the church. Talk
[2:47] Speaker 2: about the connection between the corporal works and the spiritual works?
[2:50] Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting? Brand And I think that's a very
[2:52] Speaker 1: important point. They asked a quite as you know, why
[2:55] Speaker 1: do we have sacraments? Why don't we just you know,
[2:58] Speaker 1: receive the grace of God. We understand that God's spirit
[3:01] Speaker 1: and we've received it. And his answer was, well, because
[3:04] Speaker 1: we're not angels. If we were angels, maybe that would
[3:07] Speaker 1: be true, but we're not. We're embodied spirits, and so
[3:09] Speaker 1: there needs to be both matter and form, he said,
[3:12] Speaker 1: in the sacraments, right, the form appealing to the mind,
[3:15] Speaker 1: the matter to the body. Well, something similar here. I
[3:17] Speaker 1: think we're both body and soul. We're embodied spirits. And
[3:22] Speaker 1: so God's mercy comes to us both in soul and
[3:26] Speaker 1: in body. And you might read that as a way
[3:30] Speaker 1: of understanding two types of reductionism. One is you hyper
[3:33] Speaker 1: spiritualize the faith. It's all just about the spiritual order.
[3:37] Speaker 1: You forget about the body. Whether forms of gnosticism that
[3:40] Speaker 1: do that or go to the other extreme, I think
[3:42] Speaker 1: you find in a lot of forms of liberal Christianity today,
[3:45] Speaker 1: which is reducing. If you want to the material it's
[3:48] Speaker 1: all about, you know, economic well being and material well
[3:51] Speaker 1: being and taking care of the material needs the poor,
[3:54] Speaker 1: et cetera. And the Church has said both and as
[3:58] Speaker 1: it typically does as no, there are enormous spiritual needs
[4:03] Speaker 1: we have and they've got to be met with the
[4:04] Speaker 1: spiritual works of mercy, and enormous physical needs they're met
[4:09] Speaker 1: by the corporate works of mercy. So I like that instinct,
[4:13] Speaker 1: and I've used it actually in conversation with people who
[4:15] Speaker 1: want to reduce Sometimes I think the Christian life to
[4:19] Speaker 1: taking care of the of the economic or bodily needs
[4:22] Speaker 1: of the poor. And I'll say, look, there are a
[4:25] Speaker 1: lot of forms of poverty, not just economic and bodily poverty.
[4:29] Speaker 1: Someone who's ignorant, someone who is spiritually bereft, someone who's sad,
[4:35] Speaker 1: someone who's unforgiven. Well, those are all people who have
[4:39] Speaker 1: great needs, but not at the material level, but the
[4:42] Speaker 1: spiritual level, and the Church wants to address all those
[4:45] Speaker 1: forms of poverty.
[4:47] Speaker 2: Let me just briefly list out these seven spiritual works
[4:49] Speaker 2: of mercy. We'll go through each one of them in
[4:51] Speaker 2: more length, but here they are briefly. Admonish the sinner,
[4:55] Speaker 2: instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the soul, orful
[5:01] Speaker 2: bear wrongs, patiently, forgive all injuries, and pray for the
[5:06] Speaker 2: living and the dead. Why is it you kind of
[5:10] Speaker 2: hinted at this already, but say more about why it
[5:13] Speaker 2: is that the church says it's not enough for us
[5:16] Speaker 2: to love others only with our body. Why is it
[5:19] Speaker 2: important that we meet the spiritual needs of their minds
[5:22] Speaker 2: and their souls as well.
[5:24] Speaker 1: Right, Well, to love is to will the good of
[5:25] Speaker 1: the other, And so there are goods in the spiritual order,
[5:28] Speaker 1: and we just implicitly named all of them, you know,
[5:31] Speaker 1: intellectual goods and goods of the soul, and moral goods
[5:35] Speaker 1: and so on, and so that's an expression of love,
[5:38] Speaker 1: and mercy is to will the good of the other
[5:40] Speaker 1: at that level and not just to the material level.
[5:45] Speaker 2: Well, again, let's walk through each of these seven spiritual
[5:47] Speaker 2: works of mercy. As I said earlier, you might consider
[5:50] Speaker 2: these the pathway to spiritual greatness. If you want to
[5:53] Speaker 2: be a spiritually magnanimous person, do these seven things. And
[5:57] Speaker 2: so let's maybe use these, as we did for the
[5:59] Speaker 2: core works of mercy, as an examination of our own
[6:02] Speaker 2: consciences to discern how we're doing in each of these areas.
[6:06] Speaker 2: Let's start with the first one. Admonish the sinner. This
[6:08] Speaker 2: isn't one that gets a lot of attention usually in
[6:11] Speaker 2: most parishes or places. But why is this one important?
[6:15] Speaker 1: But it's so important, isn't it ammonia in Latin to warn? Right,
[6:19] Speaker 1: To admonish a sinner is to warn a sinner that
[6:24] Speaker 1: he or she is on a bad spiritual path. Now,
[6:26] Speaker 1: I know, in our Western culture the etiquette is very
[6:29] Speaker 1: much hands off. You know, don't talk about someone's religion.
[6:33] Speaker 1: It's none of your business. That's your private concern. Don't
[6:36] Speaker 1: tell me what to do. But see, that's repugnant brandon
[6:39] Speaker 1: too to a healthy Christianity. Because we are our brothers keepers.
[6:43] Speaker 1: We are our sisters' keepers. We're on for each other.
[6:47] Speaker 1: And part of that go back to the book of
[6:49] Speaker 1: the prophet Ezekiel, you know, when he's given that charge
[6:51] Speaker 1: to warn the people of Israel. You're a father, I mean,
[6:56] Speaker 1: you know that if your kids are doing something that's
[6:58] Speaker 1: really destructive either to others to themselves, and you don't
[7:02] Speaker 1: do anything about it, you never warned them about it,
[7:05] Speaker 1: or even if they're not even on that bad path,
[7:07] Speaker 1: but they might be tempted by it, and you'd be
[7:10] Speaker 1: a pretty bad father if you never warned them, you know,
[7:13] Speaker 1: don't go down this path. So that's the model I
[7:16] Speaker 1: think with our brothers and sisters. We don't do it obnoxiously,
[7:20] Speaker 1: we don't do it in a pharisaical way, and all
[7:22] Speaker 1: those bad things. But look, what you're doing right now
[7:27] Speaker 1: is dangerous to yourself and to others, and it's an
[7:29] Speaker 1: act of love. It's an act of mercy to point
[7:32] Speaker 1: that out. I'll say one last thing about it. I
[7:35] Speaker 1: think one of the dimensions of the clergy sex abuse
[7:38] Speaker 1: scandal was that we priests and religious didn't do nearly
[7:43] Speaker 1: enough of this admonishing sinners, you know, priests who saw
[7:47] Speaker 1: someone who was engaged in some questionable behavior and never
[7:53] Speaker 1: warned the sinner, never never challenged the sinner that at
[7:57] Speaker 1: least contributed to that problem. So, you know, fraternal correction.
[8:03] Speaker 1: It's an old phrase we use, it's a good phrase.
[8:06] Speaker 1: Do it in the gospel manner. You know, you don't
[8:08] Speaker 1: go don't run to the internet and complain about someone.
[8:11] Speaker 1: Go to that person one on one. And if that
[8:14] Speaker 1: doesn't work, bring in one more witness. That doesn't work,
[8:17] Speaker 1: bring in a few more. If that doesn't work, bring
[8:19] Speaker 1: it to the church. Remember from the gospel, Matthew. But
[8:22] Speaker 1: that's all under the rubric of admonishing the sinner.
[8:27] Speaker 2: All right, let's turn to the second spiritual work of mercy,
[8:30] Speaker 2: which is instruct the ignorant. I think that that word
[8:33] Speaker 2: is usually used presoratively. You know, nobody likes to be
[8:36] Speaker 2: considered ignorant. But how do we practice this spiritual work?
[8:40] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm good. That's distinction. Ignorant doesn't mean stupid. I mean,
[8:42] Speaker 1: so if someone's stupid, they're they're lacking in some basic
[8:45] Speaker 1: intellectual capacity. Ignorant just means I don't know. You know,
[8:49] Speaker 1: I don't know, And so filling up the mind of
[8:52] Speaker 1: someone who doesn't know some important things. That's a work
[8:55] Speaker 1: of mercy. You know, every teacher knows that. I was
[8:58] Speaker 1: a teacher for a long time. But in any field,
[9:01] Speaker 1: any field of endeavor, you're teaching a kid in mathematics,
[9:03] Speaker 1: you're teaching history, you're teaching science. You know, beautiful, that's
[9:07] Speaker 1: a merciful act to fill up their eager mind with truth,
[9:12] Speaker 1: because that's one of the basic spiritual hungers we have.
[9:16] Speaker 1: I used to tease my students at Mundlin over the years.
[9:18] Speaker 1: I would say, you know, that's the work of mercy
[9:20] Speaker 1: that I practice on a regular basis. I instruct the ignorant.
[9:23] Speaker 1: I would, I would gesture to them. You know, they
[9:25] Speaker 1: never seem to like that. But it hinges on the
[9:29] Speaker 1: distinction between I wouldn't say I instruct stupid people. I'm
[9:31] Speaker 1: saying I'm I'm offering I hope, spiritual wisdom, intellectual wisdom
[9:37] Speaker 1: to those who are hungry for it. That's a merciful act.
[9:41] Speaker 1: And I'd say that to every teacher. You're a teacher,
[9:44] Speaker 1: Brandon as a as a parent, and every parent is
[9:47] Speaker 1: that's an act of mercy. So don't see that as
[9:50] Speaker 1: somehow divorced from the spiritual or moral order. It's not again.
[9:54] Speaker 1: I resisted those over the years who would say, well,
[9:57] Speaker 1: you're out there at the seminary, you know, in your
[10:00] Speaker 1: ivory tower, and you know I'm here working on the
[10:03] Speaker 1: streets with the poor. Well, I'm working with the poor
[10:06] Speaker 1: as well. I'm working with those who are intellectually poor,
[10:09] Speaker 1: and I'm feeding their minds as you're perhaps feeding their bodies.
[10:13] Speaker 1: So they're both works of mercy. Don't set them, you know,
[10:16] Speaker 1: against each other.
[10:20] Speaker 2: The third spiritual work of mercy is counsel the doubtful.
[10:24] Speaker 2: Talk to us about that one.
[10:25] Speaker 1: Boy, How relevant today, isn't it, Brandon, when so many
[10:29] Speaker 1: especially young people, doubt religion. You know, all the avatars
[10:34] Speaker 1: and evangelists of atheism and materialism and determinism, they're thick
[10:38] Speaker 1: on the ground, they're out there, they're in the internet space,
[10:42] Speaker 1: and they've produced the minds of a lot of people
[10:44] Speaker 1: doubts about God, about eternal life, about the soul, about
[10:49] Speaker 1: all these spiritual truths. We were pretty bad at it,
[10:53] Speaker 1: in my judgment, when when the new atheist evangelists were
[10:57] Speaker 1: doing their work, we were pretty bad at counseling the doubtful.
[11:03] Speaker 1: It's related in a way to instructing the ignoranized post.
[11:06] Speaker 1: But if someone's got a doubt about the religious side
[11:08] Speaker 1: of life, help them, help them with it. Don't withdraw
[11:14] Speaker 1: into your privacy. Don't say well, that's your your problem. No,
[11:17] Speaker 1: that's a form of poverty. That's a real spiritual poverty. Well,
[11:22] Speaker 1: get educated, get get apologetic. Material consult whether it's online
[11:28] Speaker 1: or through books, some of the best you know minds
[11:30] Speaker 1: on these things, so that you can counsel those who
[11:34] Speaker 1: are doubting spiritual truths. And don't play the American game
[11:38] Speaker 1: of just all this is all private. That's a private
[11:41] Speaker 1: concern of yours. Who am I to tell you what
[11:43] Speaker 1: to do?
[11:43] Speaker 2: No?
[11:44] Speaker 1: I know this, Brandon, if my own life. When you
[11:47] Speaker 1: become doubtful about high spiritual things, that's a form of suffering.
[11:52] Speaker 1: That's a form of pain. It's spiritual suffering. Well, it's
[11:56] Speaker 1: a merciful person that wants to address that situation. Who
[12:01] Speaker 1: are people around you right now? I may again you
[12:04] Speaker 1: as a father, maybe your kid's going through difficult times.
[12:08] Speaker 1: I think of the famous case you'll like this in
[12:10] Speaker 1: William F. Buckley. You know when his son Christopher Buckley,
[12:13] Speaker 1: who has become a famous writer himself, but he started
[12:16] Speaker 1: losing his faith. You know, when he was a teenager
[12:19] Speaker 1: and his dad took they went on vacation, and his
[12:22] Speaker 1: dad read to him Chestern's Orthodoxy. He just read it
[12:26] Speaker 1: aloud to him. You know, well, that was a work
[12:29] Speaker 1: of mercy. He was counseling the doubtful at that point. Now,
[12:32] Speaker 1: maybe that's not your thing to read Chesterton aloud, but
[12:36] Speaker 1: find some way to do it, because because doubt is
[12:39] Speaker 1: a form of suffering and poverty.
[12:43] Speaker 2: You and I, over the years have both read lots
[12:45] Speaker 2: of books and studies regarding people who have left the church.
[12:48] Speaker 2: And one of the most alarming and clear findings from
[12:51] Speaker 2: these studies is how many young people would say I
[12:54] Speaker 2: drifted away in middle school, high school, to college because.
[12:57] Speaker 1: No one will want to answer answered my question.
[13:00] Speaker 2: And one thing that sticks out to me in a
[13:02] Speaker 2: lot of those responses, though, is that oftentimes the young
[13:06] Speaker 2: people didn't volunteer that they had doubts. It requires a
[13:09] Speaker 2: little probing to figure out, okay, you are struggling with
[13:13] Speaker 2: this or that belief for concept or practice in the church.
[13:17] Speaker 2: So I think those of us here who are wanting
[13:19] Speaker 2: to practice this spiritual work need to do a little
[13:22] Speaker 2: active work to find those who are doubting in order
[13:25] Speaker 2: to help them.
[13:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. Good. Just as we seek out the materially poor,
[13:28] Speaker 1: sometimes we have to go find where they are. We
[13:31] Speaker 1: have to seek out the spiritually suffering too.
[13:34] Speaker 2: Okay, so we're running through the seven spiritual works of mercy.
[13:37] Speaker 2: First was admonished the sinner, Second was and struck the ignorant.
[13:41] Speaker 2: Third was counseled the doubtful. Let's turn now to the
[13:44] Speaker 2: fourth one, which is comfort the sorrowful. Talk to us
[13:48] Speaker 2: about this one.
[13:49] Speaker 1: It's so fundamental, isn't it. Everyone is sorrowful in some way.
[13:54] Speaker 1: I don't know human being on planet Earth right now
[13:56] Speaker 1: who isn't suffering in some way or mourning something. But
[14:01] Speaker 1: think of, you know, more extreme cases. Someone has just
[14:04] Speaker 1: lost to loved one, someone who is lonely. They've just
[14:09] Speaker 1: moved to a new city, they have no friends or connections.
[14:14] Speaker 1: Someone who's failed, you know, they wanted something and it
[14:17] Speaker 1: didn't happen. Someone has just been fired from her job.
[14:21] Speaker 1: There are a lot of people around us all the
[14:22] Speaker 1: time who are sorrowing. Well, address the find them, seek
[14:28] Speaker 1: them out, help them, counsel them, spend time with them.
[14:34] Speaker 1: Think of in the Book of Job. You know, before
[14:36] Speaker 1: they start speaking and making a mess of things. The
[14:38] Speaker 1: friends of job sit with him silently for seven days good.
[14:43] Speaker 1: That's called comforting the sorrowful. Find someone, and it's not
[14:47] Speaker 1: that hard. We all know someone right now who's sorrowing
[14:50] Speaker 1: over something. Seek them out. Don't wait for them to
[14:54] Speaker 1: come to you, but you find a way to come
[14:57] Speaker 1: to them and offer them comfort. It's like someone who's
[15:01] Speaker 1: hungry or thirsty, and it's a real elemental need, isn't it.
[15:06] Speaker 1: Someone who's sorrowing. That's a suffering, It's a pain and
[15:10] Speaker 1: emptiness at a very deep level. I think you know,
[15:13] Speaker 1: when I was doing parish work many years ago, it's
[15:16] Speaker 1: like visiting lonely people was a big part of the job.
[15:20] Speaker 1: I used to go most Fridays and I bring communion
[15:22] Speaker 1: to elderly folks who couldn't, you know, get out of
[15:24] Speaker 1: the house, and I brought the Lord to them sacramentally.
[15:28] Speaker 1: But a lot of the visit was spending time with
[15:31] Speaker 1: lonely people who were sorrowing. And I remember, you know,
[15:35] Speaker 1: I'd have to make the rounds of like several people
[15:37] Speaker 1: within a few hours. So the moment would always come
[15:40] Speaker 1: when I say, well, you know, I have to I
[15:42] Speaker 1: have to leave now, and just the look of pain
[15:46] Speaker 1: on their face when when because they look forward to
[15:48] Speaker 1: that moment of that visit. Well good, that's a that's
[15:52] Speaker 1: a spiritual work of mercy to do that.
[15:57] Speaker 2: The fifth spiritual work of mercy is bear wrongs patiently.
[16:02] Speaker 2: It strikes me that among all fourteen works, the seventh
[16:05] Speaker 2: corporal and the seventh spiritual, this one, among all of them,
[16:08] Speaker 2: you might say, is the only one that is passively done.
[16:11] Speaker 2: You're not doing anything, You're not responding to people who
[16:14] Speaker 2: have wronged you with, you know, harsh criticism or reaction.
[16:19] Speaker 2: Talk to us about this one, Bear wrongs patiently.
[16:21] Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the verses of that I've always loved
[16:24] Speaker 1: is bear patiently the troublesome. So we all know what
[16:29] Speaker 1: that's about. There are people in our lives. We come
[16:32] Speaker 1: across some practically every day who for whatever reason, are
[16:36] Speaker 1: just difficult to be with. They're troublesome, they are annoying,
[16:40] Speaker 1: they're boring, they're tedious and tiresome, they're intrusive, they're impolite.
[16:47] Speaker 1: You know, just go through your day and maybe when
[16:50] Speaker 1: you examine your conscience the end of the day, call
[16:53] Speaker 1: them to mind. Who are some troublesome people that I
[16:56] Speaker 1: had to deal with today. Well, there's a classic react
[17:00] Speaker 1: to troublesome people, which is to walk away from them,
[17:03] Speaker 1: to bark at them, to criticize them in turn, to
[17:07] Speaker 1: bore them as much as they're boring. You know, there's
[17:10] Speaker 1: all way. So we can deal with the troublesome or
[17:13] Speaker 1: or we could bear it patiently. We could respond in love,
[17:21] Speaker 1: willing the good or the other to someone who's troubling us.
[17:26] Speaker 1: You know, one thing I think of because I'm not
[17:27] Speaker 1: a big talker on airplanes. I'm on airplanes a lot,
[17:32] Speaker 1: you know, but I kind of put the headphones in
[17:34] Speaker 1: and I watch a movie or somebody read a book,
[17:36] Speaker 1: because you never really know, here's this person next to you.
[17:38] Speaker 1: We have no idea who this person is. And sometimes
[17:41] Speaker 1: it doesn't work, and the person starts talking, and it
[17:45] Speaker 1: might be in a very troublesome way. It might be
[17:47] Speaker 1: annoying or tedious. But I think of that this work
[17:52] Speaker 1: of mercy in those situations where okay, why was this
[17:56] Speaker 1: person sent to me right now? If you believe in
[17:58] Speaker 1: divine providence, and as a cointas says, God's providence extends
[18:02] Speaker 1: to particulars you and I right now having this conversation
[18:06] Speaker 1: is part of God's providence. All right, Why was this
[18:09] Speaker 1: troublesome person put in my path today? I always like
[18:15] Speaker 1: Josey Maria Esquiva on this one, you know, where he said,
[18:18] Speaker 1: don't say, gosh, this person is really bugging me, say Lord,
[18:22] Speaker 1: thank you, because this person is sanctifying me. Was this
[18:26] Speaker 1: troublesome person sent to sanctify me? To draw forth from
[18:30] Speaker 1: me my patience, my forbearance, my love, my generosity? You know?
[18:37] Speaker 1: So it's such a practical one. I like that about it,
[18:40] Speaker 1: and we all face it almost every day. Not everyone
[18:44] Speaker 1: you meet is a great friend and is full of
[18:47] Speaker 1: fun and delightful to be with. In fact, most people aren't.
[18:51] Speaker 1: And then some are are the opposite. They're they're annoying,
[18:54] Speaker 1: they're boring, they're they're troublesome. Okay, use that as an
[18:59] Speaker 1: opportunity to love. That's this work of mercy.
[19:03] Speaker 2: Obviously, all fourteen of these works are embodied in the
[19:06] Speaker 2: person of Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated how perfectly to do
[19:11] Speaker 2: all of these things. But for this one especially, I
[19:13] Speaker 2: think of Christ bearing wrongs patiently in the last hours
[19:17] Speaker 2: of his life. You know, he's insulted, he's beaten, he's mocked,
[19:21] Speaker 2: and he just takes it. He absorbs all of it
[19:25] Speaker 2: into himself and thereby diffuses it. But I think he's
[19:28] Speaker 2: the great exemplar, especially of this one.
[19:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right.
[19:33] Speaker 2: Number six, the sixth spiritual work of mercy is to
[19:35] Speaker 2: forgive all injuries. Talk about that one.
[19:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, boy, how central to the teaching and practice of
[19:42] Speaker 1: Jesus was forgiveness, And we every day in the Lord's prayer.
[19:46] Speaker 1: I mean, as often as you pray it, forgive us
[19:49] Speaker 1: our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[19:53] Speaker 1: To forgive, it's a work of justice and beyond just
[19:58] Speaker 1: as a work of love. When you forgive someone, you know,
[20:02] Speaker 1: if you're separated like this and you've done your part,
[20:06] Speaker 1: that's an act of justice. But then they haven't moved.
[20:09] Speaker 1: To forgive is to kind of bear their burden, to
[20:12] Speaker 1: go the extra step to be reconciled. Well, that's asking
[20:16] Speaker 1: too much, Yeah, I know it is. That's the whole point.
[20:18] Speaker 1: It is asking too much. It's not fair. He should
[20:21] Speaker 1: have moved too, and you would have met in the middle.
[20:23] Speaker 1: But he didn't move, So you've got to bear his burden.
[20:26] Speaker 1: You have to actively forgive, and it's exceptionally difficult. But Brandon,
[20:33] Speaker 1: look at every troubled place in the world and you'll
[20:39] Speaker 1: find nearer the heart of it an incapacity to forgive justice.
[20:45] Speaker 1: And that's why, after years and years and years of
[20:47] Speaker 1: hearing justice, justice, justice, I'm always a little bit wary
[20:51] Speaker 1: of so much justice language because justice is always shouted
[20:56] Speaker 1: by everybody on all sides of conflicts. But what resolves
[21:00] Speaker 1: conflict goes beyond justice. It has to. It's not less
[21:04] Speaker 1: than justice. So I'm not bad mouthing justice, but you've
[21:08] Speaker 1: got to go beyond justice, I think if you want
[21:11] Speaker 1: to resolve a conflict, and I think that's why it's
[21:14] Speaker 1: so central to Jesus preaching and proxies. Again, go out
[21:18] Speaker 1: to your example of the Lord on the cross, right Father,
[21:22] Speaker 1: forgive them. They know not what they do as he
[21:25] Speaker 1: bears the sins of the world. His answer is not
[21:29] Speaker 1: vengeance or violence. It's forgiving love. Yeh boy, it's hard.
[21:35] Speaker 1: It's a mind you it's a work of mercy. All
[21:39] Speaker 1: of them are. That means they're hard. If they were
[21:42] Speaker 1: walking the park, we wouldn't call them works of mercy. There,
[21:46] Speaker 1: it's an effort in our sinful, fallen world, given my
[21:50] Speaker 1: sinful condition, They're always an effort, this one especially, it's
[21:54] Speaker 1: a work of mercy to forgive the end of the day.
[21:59] Speaker 1: Can you look back and say, Okay, did I forgive
[22:01] Speaker 1: someone today? And that has to do with your heart,
[22:04] Speaker 1: but also with external action. Did I write a note,
[22:08] Speaker 1: did I make a phone call, did I reach out
[22:11] Speaker 1: in conversation, did I say a forgiving word to someone.
[22:16] Speaker 1: That's a tough one. That's a tough one. But it's
[22:18] Speaker 1: a work of mercy.
[22:20] Speaker 2: Well, the seventh and final spiritual work of mercy. The
[22:23] Speaker 2: way to be spiritually great is to pray for the
[22:27] Speaker 2: living and the dead. Why is this one critical?
[22:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, pray is prayer for us. Sure. I spent my
[22:35] Speaker 1: Holy Hour this morning, you know, partly in meditation. I
[22:39] Speaker 1: prayed the Jesus Prayer this morning. Some of it is
[22:43] Speaker 1: just I have these cards in my prayer book that
[22:46] Speaker 1: you know, have great saints that I spend time just
[22:49] Speaker 1: just meditating on them. So I mean prayers for me
[22:52] Speaker 1: sure in a way. But an aspect of prayer, and
[22:56] Speaker 1: I try to bring it to every Holy Hour has
[22:58] Speaker 1: to be praying for others, bringing to mind when you
[23:04] Speaker 1: pray those who are in need. And you know, don't
[23:08] Speaker 1: press me on it, because I don't know the answer
[23:11] Speaker 1: to lay out the exact metaphysical dynamics of how all
[23:14] Speaker 1: this works. But I know it's at the heart of
[23:17] Speaker 1: our great tradition that we are connected to each other spiritually,
[23:21] Speaker 1: and that somehow, in asking God to help someone, I
[23:27] Speaker 1: channel something. I become a vehicle in God's providence of
[23:31] Speaker 1: his mercy toward another. We experience some coinherens right, as
[23:37] Speaker 1: Charles Williams called it. We inhere in each other, and
[23:41] Speaker 1: so as Christ bore the sins of the world and
[23:44] Speaker 1: offered forgiveness to us, so we can bear each other's
[23:47] Speaker 1: burdens physically, yes, but more importantly spiritually, I can, through
[23:53] Speaker 1: my prayer, help to bear the burden of somebody. And
[23:57] Speaker 1: so that's a huge part of prayer. When you say
[24:00] Speaker 1: it's someone you know, how's your prayer life? I really
[24:02] Speaker 1: am prayed in yours. Well, it's bad for that person, yeah,
[24:06] Speaker 1: but it's also bad for all the people that he
[24:09] Speaker 1: should have been praying for. I would say that a
[24:12] Speaker 1: lot when I was teaching at Mondoline and the young
[24:16] Speaker 1: guys were learning the lergy of the Hours, and they'd say,
[24:18] Speaker 1: you know, Father, sometimes I just don't feel like it.
[24:21] Speaker 1: It's such a burden. I say, I don't care. I
[24:23] Speaker 1: don't care what you feel like it. You're not praying
[24:26] Speaker 1: just for you to get your spiritual you know, elevation.
[24:31] Speaker 1: You're praying for and that's the training. See for a priest.
[24:34] Speaker 1: When you pray the ldersy of the hours, you're especially
[24:37] Speaker 1: praying for the people that you serve. All my priesthood
[24:43] Speaker 1: and now is a bishop. I'm very aware of it
[24:44] Speaker 1: when I pray. Now, it's this diocese, it's Winona, Rochester
[24:49] Speaker 1: that I'm praying for above all, and it's the priest.
[24:52] Speaker 1: It's the people I met here, those I know who
[24:55] Speaker 1: are suffering. I'll bring them to mind. I think, too, Brandon.
[25:01] Speaker 1: People staying away from Mass on Sunday bad for all
[25:04] Speaker 1: kinds of reasons. But I'll tell you one reason it's
[25:06] Speaker 1: really bad is they weren't praying for the living and
[25:09] Speaker 1: the dead. That's one thing you do at mass. Mass
[25:12] Speaker 1: is the supreme prayer of the Church. All right, all right, good.
[25:15] Speaker 1: You're there for your own edification, sure, but you're also
[25:19] Speaker 1: there because you're a member of the mystical body, and
[25:22] Speaker 1: you're obligated to pray at that Mass for the living. Yeah,
[25:26] Speaker 1: and for the dead. One thing, I think you probably
[25:29] Speaker 1: heard me do this at Mass. At the prayers the faithful,
[25:32] Speaker 1: I often say, he just pray for so and so
[25:35] Speaker 1: who's died, And I'll say, and let's pray for all
[25:38] Speaker 1: of the dead who have no one else to pray
[25:39] Speaker 1: for them. Someone prayed that many many years ago, and
[25:42] Speaker 1: I stayed in my mind that, Okay, I'm saying Mass,
[25:46] Speaker 1: the universal prayer of the Church, the greatest prayer of
[25:48] Speaker 1: the Church, offered to the Father in Christ. Well, yeah,
[25:53] Speaker 1: i am. I'm going to pray for people I've never met,
[25:55] Speaker 1: people I have no idea who they are. They could
[25:57] Speaker 1: have lived a thousand years ago, but I'll pray for
[26:01] Speaker 1: them because no one else is praying for them. That's
[26:05] Speaker 1: one of the tragedies of absenting ourselves from the Mass,
[26:09] Speaker 1: is we don't perform this work of mercy.
[26:20] Speaker 2: Well, it's time now for a question from one of
[26:22] Speaker 2: our listeners. Today we have a question from Matt, who
[26:25] Speaker 2: lives in New York. Matt has been away from the
[26:27] Speaker 2: church for many years and wonderfully has decided to come
[26:31] Speaker 2: back but he's got a question for you Bishop. Upon
[26:33] Speaker 2: his return. Here's his question. Hi, Bishop Baron, this is
[26:40] Speaker 2: Matt from New York.
[26:41] Speaker 1: I'm coming back to the church from ab a fifteen
[26:44] Speaker 1: year absence and all the words changed. What happened? Thanks,
[26:50] Speaker 1: that's a New York question. I like, that's a that's
[26:53] Speaker 1: a direct question. Well, what happened? So he said fifteen
[26:56] Speaker 1: years ago? It was about when was it, Brandon twenty eleven?
[26:59] Speaker 1: I think we made these liturgical changes. So it's yeah,
[27:02] Speaker 1: it's been a while now. Gosh, well it'll be what
[27:05] Speaker 1: thirteen years. It's hard to believe it's been that long.
[27:08] Speaker 1: But after a long process involving isol which is the
[27:12] Speaker 1: International Commission on English and the Liturgy, what was the
[27:15] Speaker 1: other Vaux Clara, There were a couple of these great
[27:19] Speaker 1: bodies that considered the liturgical texts. The sense was that
[27:23] Speaker 1: in some ways the translations that followed the Council immediately
[27:26] Speaker 1: were not adequate to the Latin, and so we went
[27:29] Speaker 1: back and provided and I think, in many ways far
[27:32] Speaker 1: more adequate translations. There was a fear too, that the
[27:36] Speaker 1: older translations had certain prejudices in them against the transcendence
[27:40] Speaker 1: of God. They were more in the imminent direction. So
[27:43] Speaker 1: these two bodies tried to correct those imperfections, and they
[27:48] Speaker 1: gave us, beginning in twenty eleven, this new translation. Now
[27:51] Speaker 1: it's really not fair to say that all the words changed.
[27:53] Speaker 1: In fact, I say most of them remained more or
[27:56] Speaker 1: less the same. But we did indeed update and make
[28:01] Speaker 1: more faithful to the Latin the renderings of the liturgy.
[28:06] Speaker 1: I think most of our people, you know, got used
[28:08] Speaker 1: here pretty fast. There was a great concern I remember that, like,
[28:11] Speaker 1: oh my gosh, what will the people do, and they're
[28:12] Speaker 1: going to run away and they won't get it. I
[28:15] Speaker 1: think pretty quickly people adapted to them, and I like
[28:18] Speaker 1: the prayers much more. They are better crafted, they are
[28:21] Speaker 1: more respectful of the beauty of the liturgy, the transcendence
[28:25] Speaker 1: of God and all that. But that's what happened about
[28:29] Speaker 1: what thirteen years ago.
[28:31] Speaker 2: Now, well, as we wrap up here, I am delighted
[28:36] Speaker 2: to tell you about Word on Fire's newest book. This
[28:38] Speaker 2: one is by the inimitable Peter Craft. I know many
[28:41] Speaker 2: of you who listen to this show are big fans
[28:43] Speaker 2: of Peter Crave. We published many of his books before.
[28:46] Speaker 2: This new one is called Ethics for Beginners, Big Ideas
[28:51] Speaker 2: from thirty two Great Minds. Socrates once said that a
[28:55] Speaker 2: good person does not worry much about the little things,
[28:57] Speaker 2: like whether he lives or dies, but about the one
[29:00] Speaker 2: big thing, whether he is a good person or a
[29:03] Speaker 2: bad one. In this book, Ethics for Beginners, philosopher Peter
[29:06] Speaker 2: Kraf reclaims the importance of ethical study in answering life's
[29:10] Speaker 2: big questions, what is the meaning of life? How should
[29:14] Speaker 2: I live? How should I treat other people? Unlike many
[29:17] Speaker 2: other modern techs on the subject, this one asserts that
[29:20] Speaker 2: ethics is real, that good and evil are knowable, and
[29:23] Speaker 2: that we can learn to act well so become better
[29:27] Speaker 2: and happier people. So he looks at the big ideas
[29:30] Speaker 2: of thirty two of the most important ethical philosophers. If
[29:33] Speaker 2: you previously read Socrates children his four volume history of philosophy,
[29:38] Speaker 2: said this would be a great follow up book to it. Again,
[29:40] Speaker 2: it's called Ethics for Beginners. You can find it at
[29:43] Speaker 2: Word Onfire dot org slash ethics. Well, thanks so much
[29:47] Speaker 2: for listening and watching. We'll see you next time on
[29:50] Speaker 2: the Word on Fire Show

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