# Face Your Fears Only God Can Help You - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 16 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754533/face_your_fears_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. We come now to the
[0:02] Speaker 1: fourth Sunday of Lent, and I mentioned before the readings
[0:06] Speaker 1: are so rich for Lent, they always are, and we're
[0:09] Speaker 1: meant to have kind of a heightened attention as we
[0:12] Speaker 1: attend to these and the reading for today. The Gospel
[0:15] Speaker 1: is one of the most famous texts in the Bible.
[0:18] Speaker 1: In fact less so now, but when I was coming
[0:20] Speaker 1: of age, you saw it all the time at sporting
[0:23] Speaker 1: events and all that people would hold up a sign
[0:26] Speaker 1: Saint John three point sixteen, and the references to align
[0:30] Speaker 1: from the Gospel today, namely for God so loved the
[0:33] Speaker 1: world he gave his only son so that everyone who
[0:36] Speaker 1: believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
[0:41] Speaker 1: Now you see why people have held that up, because
[0:44] Speaker 1: in many ways it's the Gospel adminiature. If someone were
[0:47] Speaker 1: to ask, well, what's Christianity all about, and you had
[0:50] Speaker 1: one verse from the New Testament, that's not a bad
[0:53] Speaker 1: candidate to point to God so loved the world he
[0:56] Speaker 1: gave his only son so that everyone who believes in
[1:00] Speaker 1: him might not perish but might have eternal life. Okay,
[1:04] Speaker 1: I'm going to get there, but I want to attend
[1:06] Speaker 1: to what's right before it. And I think in many
[1:10] Speaker 1: ways we can isolate that phrase too much, and we
[1:13] Speaker 1: miss the real import of it because we don't attend
[1:16] Speaker 1: to what happens right before. It's the famous speech to Nicodemus.
[1:20] Speaker 1: You know, by the way, this elder of Israel, this
[1:23] Speaker 1: teacher of Israel, who comes to Jesus at night so
[1:26] Speaker 1: he wouldn't be detected. He's fascinated by this rabbi who's
[1:30] Speaker 1: been performing miracles and preaching in this extraordinary way, and
[1:34] Speaker 1: he comes with these searching questions. And so this conversation
[1:37] Speaker 1: is of enormous importance for Christian theology and spirituality. But
[1:42] Speaker 1: here's how the Gospel for Today opens. It's the verses
[1:45] Speaker 1: right before the famous John three point sixteen. Jesus said
[1:50] Speaker 1: to Nicodemus, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in
[1:55] Speaker 1: the desert, so the son of Man must be lifted up,
[1:59] Speaker 1: so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Now,
[2:05] Speaker 1: the reference which nobody in the first century would have
[2:07] Speaker 1: missed if they knew the you know, Hebrew scriptures. The
[2:10] Speaker 1: reference is to the Old Testament scene Israelites are making
[2:14] Speaker 1: their way from slavery to the Promised Land. At one point,
[2:18] Speaker 1: they're being bitten by sarah serpents just means fiery serpents.
[2:23] Speaker 1: So probably some kind of poisonous snake biting the people,
[2:27] Speaker 1: killing many, making many sick. They come to Moses complaining,
[2:31] Speaker 1: you know, what are we to do? And so Moses
[2:33] Speaker 1: goes to the Lord and he says, look, I want
[2:35] Speaker 1: you to make a image of the serah serpent. I
[2:40] Speaker 1: want you to mount it on a pole. So think
[2:42] Speaker 1: of this this, you know, maybe bronze sculpture mounted on
[2:45] Speaker 1: a pole, and I want you to hold that up,
[2:49] Speaker 1: and all those who look at this image of the
[2:52] Speaker 1: serpent will be cured. So it happens, and you say, well, okay,
[2:58] Speaker 1: that's a peculiar story. So the people are sick from
[3:02] Speaker 1: being bitten. Why in the world would holding up an
[3:05] Speaker 1: image of the snake that harmed them, why would that
[3:11] Speaker 1: cure them? Well, I think in many ways that story
[3:15] Speaker 1: is way ahead of his time. That story is way
[3:19] Speaker 1: ahead of the curve. Because we now, who've inherited the
[3:23] Speaker 1: wisdom of some of the founders of psychology, we understand
[3:27] Speaker 1: this dynamic very well. If someone is suffering because of
[3:34] Speaker 1: a fear they've been bitten by a Sarah serpent. There's
[3:41] Speaker 1: something in their experience that frightens them. It's hurt them.
[3:47] Speaker 1: They cry out to God, you know, save me from this.
[3:50] Speaker 1: What does the Lord say? Don't run from what frightens you,
[3:58] Speaker 1: Rather look at it. Look at it and you'll be cured.
[4:06] Speaker 1: Look at it and your fear will be conquered. No.
[4:10] Speaker 1: I don't mean this is some kind of automatic way,
[4:11] Speaker 1: but you know psychologically you're afraid of public speaking, Well,
[4:18] Speaker 1: don't run away from it. No, no, get up there
[4:22] Speaker 1: and accept invitations to speak publicly. Look your fear in
[4:26] Speaker 1: the face. You're afraid of going out and meeting people, Well,
[4:30] Speaker 1: don't stay at home cowering and fear. No, no, accept invitations.
[4:36] Speaker 1: Go out meet your fear. You're afraid of failure. Well,
[4:40] Speaker 1: I know you can spend the rest of your life
[4:42] Speaker 1: than suck in your room, or you can go out
[4:45] Speaker 1: and try again. You fall off the horse, you get
[4:48] Speaker 1: up on it again. So we know that both in
[4:51] Speaker 1: terms of folk wisdom and psychological reflection. Same dynamic here
[4:57] Speaker 1: seems to me. What is beaten you in life? What's
[5:02] Speaker 1: wounded you? Poisoned? You look at it and you'll be cured.
[5:08] Speaker 1: There's something in the Buddhist tradition I've always liked there's
[5:12] Speaker 1: a little adage that says, invite your fears in for tea.
[5:18] Speaker 1: It's a comical image, we see. The idea is your
[5:21] Speaker 1: fear of failure, your fear of sickness, your fear of dying,
[5:24] Speaker 1: your fear of losing your friends. You can become so
[5:28] Speaker 1: identified with those fears that they define you when you
[5:33] Speaker 1: invite them in for tea. Well, okay, there's my fear
[5:36] Speaker 1: of death, there's my fear of failure. Welcome, here's a
[5:39] Speaker 1: cup of tea for you. What you've done is you've
[5:42] Speaker 1: effectively distantiated yourself from your fear. You've disidentified yourself from
[5:48] Speaker 1: your fear, and you look at them, you entertain them,
[5:54] Speaker 1: you invite them in for tea. Something similar here. Now,
[6:00] Speaker 1: this is the scene, everybody is so important. This is
[6:03] Speaker 1: the scene to which Jesus draws Nicodemus's attention. Just as
[6:09] Speaker 1: Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the
[6:14] Speaker 1: son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone
[6:19] Speaker 1: who believes in him may have eternal life. Now, what's
[6:24] Speaker 1: the lifting up of the son of God? The cross?
[6:30] Speaker 1: When Jesus is lifted up from the earth and displayed
[6:33] Speaker 1: on his cross. You look at the seraph serpent, You're cured.
[6:39] Speaker 1: You believe in the son of Man lifted up on
[6:43] Speaker 1: the cross, and you'll find eternal life. Can I suggest
[6:46] Speaker 1: everybody the same dynamic obtains here? What do you see
[6:54] Speaker 1: on the cross of Jesus, Absolutely everything that frightens you.
[7:03] Speaker 1: Think of the course of your human life. What are
[7:05] Speaker 1: you afraid of? Well, how about cruelty? How about deep
[7:13] Speaker 1: institutional injustice that you become a victim of. How about
[7:21] Speaker 1: the denial of your friends, People you thought were in
[7:26] Speaker 1: your inner circle, and they deny they even know you.
[7:31] Speaker 1: In fact, in your moment of greatest need, they say,
[7:35] Speaker 1: I don't even know that guy. I had nothing to
[7:37] Speaker 1: do with him. How about betrayal by someone in your
[7:42] Speaker 1: inner circle, someone that you trusted, a dear friend, who
[7:47] Speaker 1: then turns on you and harms you. You see that
[7:52] Speaker 1: in the Cross of Jesus, don't you? Violence? I mean
[7:57] Speaker 1: awful violence. Think of the process of crucifixion, all that
[8:01] Speaker 1: that involved, horrific violence, physical suffering. Look, every one of us,
[8:09] Speaker 1: every one of us, of course, we're afraid of physical pain. Well,
[8:14] Speaker 1: a crucifixion literally excruciating pain, the worst kind of pain.
[8:21] Speaker 1: The Romans who mastered the art of this horrible form
[8:24] Speaker 1: of execution. There's Jesus at the limit of physical suffering.
[8:30] Speaker 1: How about psychological pain being abandoned to be alone, the
[8:40] Speaker 1: heartbreak that Jesus must have felt on the cross as
[8:44] Speaker 1: everyone ran from him. And then humiliation. You know how
[8:53] Speaker 1: contemporary begins to sound today with social media false accusation
[9:00] Speaker 1: and then that false accusation multiplied everywhere all over the
[9:06] Speaker 1: world through social media, where you're publicly humiliated. Well, that's
[9:12] Speaker 1: Jesus felt that on the cross. Is there he was exposed,
[9:15] Speaker 1: naked on the cross, a sign mocking him over his head,
[9:19] Speaker 1: people spitting at him as they go by, public humiliation,
[9:25] Speaker 1: and then the last step. It's almost too awful to state.
[9:29] Speaker 1: But when Jesus says on the cross, God, my God,
[9:32] Speaker 1: why have you abandoned me? Is that deep spiritual suffering,
[9:39] Speaker 1: that sense of being abandoned, Yes, even by God. Now
[9:44] Speaker 1: I see the point everybody, when the son of Man
[9:47] Speaker 1: is lifted up, he's just like the seraph serpent in
[9:51] Speaker 1: the desert. Why because those are all the things that
[9:55] Speaker 1: I just named, those are all the things that fight
[9:59] Speaker 1: us and poison us and harm us, all the things
[10:03] Speaker 1: that we're afraid of. What don't you do? You don't
[10:09] Speaker 1: run and hide from them, You don't cower in fear
[10:13] Speaker 1: because of them. Rather you look at them. When the
[10:19] Speaker 1: son of Man is lifted up, he'll give eternal life
[10:25] Speaker 1: to all those who believe in him. See what are
[10:28] Speaker 1: you seeing on that cross? Yes, all the suffering and
[10:34] Speaker 1: fear that bedebles us. At the same time, and here's
[10:40] Speaker 1: the heart of the gospel, at the same time, you
[10:43] Speaker 1: see the God who accompanies us in and through all
[10:49] Speaker 1: of it. What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing,
[10:55] Speaker 1: Saint Paul says, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
[11:00] Speaker 1: neither height nor depth, nor any other creature could separate
[11:04] Speaker 1: us from the love of God. Why because Paul saw
[11:06] Speaker 1: the Son of Man lifted up, looking at everything that
[11:12] Speaker 1: poisons us, but seeing the God who accompanies us in
[11:18] Speaker 1: and through and despite all of it, the God who
[11:23] Speaker 1: thereby effectively disempowers all of it. Okay, that's all that
[11:31] Speaker 1: comes for before the famous John three sixteen. So with
[11:34] Speaker 1: all that in mind, listen again. For God so love
[11:39] Speaker 1: the world that he gave his only son see gave him,
[11:44] Speaker 1: how gave him in what sense? He gave him into
[11:50] Speaker 1: our suffering. Go all the way down, the father says
[11:56] Speaker 1: to the son, Go all the way down, Go into
[11:59] Speaker 1: everything that frightens them, everything, and show that the divine
[12:06] Speaker 1: love accompanies us even as we look at all of
[12:10] Speaker 1: these fearsome things. See and that's why in that cross
[12:15] Speaker 1: everybody we find salvation soloists in Latin just means health.
[12:24] Speaker 1: Salvation means healing. How do you get healed of your
[12:29] Speaker 1: psychological fears? We got to look at them, You've got
[12:31] Speaker 1: to face them. How do you get healed of everything
[12:37] Speaker 1: in the spiritual order that frightens us? Look at the
[12:42] Speaker 1: Son of Man, who's like the seraph serpent in the desert.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Look at the Son of Man listen, bearing all of
[12:53] Speaker 1: the sin and suffering of the world. And in that
[12:58] Speaker 1: act we find our fear conquered. We know nothing can
[13:07] Speaker 1: separate us from the love of God. Friends. With that image, now,
[13:13] Speaker 1: let's move as we're getting very close now a holy week,
[13:17] Speaker 1: Let's move into this contemplation of the passion and death
[13:20] Speaker 1: of Jesus and God bless you.

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