# Bishop Barron – Have You Been Praying but God Seems Silent? This Message Is for You

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 3 Oct 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74742486/bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon_have_you_been_praying_yet_god_remains_silent_listen_to_this.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, the title of my sermon
[0:02] Speaker 1: for this 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time is How Not
[0:05] Speaker 1: to Read the Story of the Syrophoenician Woman. You know
[0:09] Speaker 1: the story well. You've heard it, I'm sure, over and
[0:11] Speaker 1: over again. Jesus wanders into this country outside the borders
[0:14] Speaker 1: of ancient Israel, and he runs across this woman, a
[0:18] Speaker 1: Syrophoenician woman, who has a request. Could you please help
[0:21] Speaker 1: my daughter? She's possessed by a dark spirit. And then
[0:24] Speaker 1: Jesus sort of famously puts her off. First he He
[0:29] Speaker 1: ignores her, doesn't say anything to her. And then when
[0:32] Speaker 1: she presses, he says, no, no, no, I've just been
[0:34] Speaker 1: sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[0:36] Speaker 1: You know, not to you foreigners by implication. And then
[0:40] Speaker 1: when she keeps pressing, we get this line that, I mean,
[0:43] Speaker 1: just seems so almost cruel. It's not right to take
[0:47] Speaker 1: the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.
[0:49] Speaker 1: So first kind of indifference. And then look, I'm just
[0:53] Speaker 1: for Israel. And then finally, I'm not throwing, you know,
[0:56] Speaker 1: food to the dogs. I mean, it's pretty off-putting stuff, right?
[1:01] Speaker 1: And then she has one of the most famous, you know,
[1:03] Speaker 1: snappy comebacks in literary history. You know, well, at least,
[1:07] Speaker 1: you know, the dogs eat the scraps that fall from
[1:09] Speaker 1: the table. And then Jesus comes around. Okay, I'm going
[1:11] Speaker 1: to cure your daughter. Okay, how not to read the story,
[1:15] Speaker 1: even though maybe you've heard a dozen homilies in this regard. Well,
[1:21] Speaker 1: Jesus is, you know, tired out after a tough day
[1:24] Speaker 1: of ministry and travel, and he's kind of cranky. And
[1:27] Speaker 1: this sort of annoying woman comes along. And so, you know,
[1:30] Speaker 1: he puts her off and then he throws a, you know,
[1:32] Speaker 1: sort of off-putting remark. And then he finally insults her. He's,
[1:36] Speaker 1: you know, just, he's difficult with her. And then she's
[1:39] Speaker 1: so clever and has this kind of, you know, plucky
[1:42] Speaker 1: comeback line. And he says, oh, yeah, okay, I'll do
[1:44] Speaker 1: what you want. In fact, you know, I've really learned
[1:47] Speaker 1: a lot from you and I've learned a lot from your,
[1:49] Speaker 1: you know, persistence. And so I'm a better person for
[1:53] Speaker 1: having come across you. All right, look. I've been involved
[1:56] Speaker 1: in pastoral ministry for much of my life. Talk to
[1:59] Speaker 1: any priest, anyone involved in pastoral work. Sure, we all get,
[2:03] Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you're cranky, it's been a long day,
[2:05] Speaker 1: sometimes people are kind of annoying, and then we lose
[2:07] Speaker 1: our temper, we're short, and we're difficult with them. Okay, okay.
[2:11] Speaker 1: When it comes to us, sure, I get that. But
[2:15] Speaker 1: the problem, everybody, is you can't turn Jesus into a sinner.
[2:19] Speaker 1: That he's tired, okay, and maybe a psychologically cranky, okay.
[2:24] Speaker 1: But you can't turn Jesus into a sinner who's being
[2:28] Speaker 1: aggressive toward this woman. If he's a sinner, he needs
[2:32] Speaker 1: a savior. If he's a sinner, he's not the savior himself.
[2:36] Speaker 1: And the whole structure of Christianity falls apart. Now, besides that,
[2:40] Speaker 1: it's a great interpretation. I'm saying, so don't read it
[2:44] Speaker 1: that way. I know it's trendy. I know it appeals
[2:46] Speaker 1: to kind of our psychological experience, but it's not the
[2:49] Speaker 1: way to read it. The church fathers had a much,
[2:53] Speaker 1: much better, more convincing reading of this that actually is
[2:56] Speaker 1: spiritually much more helpful than saying, hey, cranky Jesus had
[3:01] Speaker 1: a bad day, and plucky gal from Syrophoenicia straightened him out.
[3:06] Speaker 1: I mean, forget that. What's this about? It's about the
[3:11] Speaker 1: testing of faith, that faith might grow. The principle, and
[3:17] Speaker 1: we all know it, everybody, we all know the principle
[3:20] Speaker 1: that Powers in us grow, deepen, develop in the measure
[3:27] Speaker 1: that they are opposed, that they find some resistance. And
[3:32] Speaker 1: it's in fighting against the resistance that we grow, right?
[3:37] Speaker 1: I mean, it's a basic principle. I'm going to give
[3:40] Speaker 1: you some, and maybe they're stupid examples, but they're from
[3:44] Speaker 1: my own experience. Once you see this principle, you can
[3:48] Speaker 1: see it, of course, in your own life. Here's the
[3:50] Speaker 1: first one. So when I was a little kid, I
[3:53] Speaker 1: was a good baseball player. I played all the main sports,
[3:56] Speaker 1: you know, basketball and football and so on. But baseball
[3:58] Speaker 1: was my best game. And I was a good defensive player.
[4:01] Speaker 1: And I did a little bit of pitching. I played
[4:03] Speaker 1: shortstop usually. But I was especially good hitter. One year,
[4:07] Speaker 1: I must have been like in seventh grade, maybe, Little League.
[4:11] Speaker 1: No kidding. My batting average was in the 600s. And
[4:14] Speaker 1: I kept it very carefully. You know, in those days,
[4:18] Speaker 1: I read all his books. I had good eyesight. I
[4:21] Speaker 1: had good hand-eye coordination. And Little League pitching is not exactly,
[4:25] Speaker 1: you know, world class. So I was able to hit
[4:28] Speaker 1: the ball really well, right? So one year, maybe it
[4:32] Speaker 1: was the following year, I made the all-star team for
[4:36] Speaker 1: our Little League, right? And I find myself at all-star practice. So,
[4:42] Speaker 1: you know, the better players are there. and I'm up
[4:44] Speaker 1: at the plate during practice, and I'm just hitting line
[4:47] Speaker 1: drive after line drive, boom, boom, against a fellow little
[4:52] Speaker 1: league pitcher. Well, there was a coach, and it was
[4:56] Speaker 1: the All-Star team, so I didn't really know him that well.
[4:58] Speaker 1: He was an All-Star coach. And he came to the mound,
[5:01] Speaker 1: and he saw that I was hitting really well, and
[5:03] Speaker 1: he said to me, you know, I'd like to show
[5:05] Speaker 1: you something. So he got up to the mound, and
[5:07] Speaker 1: he himself was, if I remember right, he was a
[5:11] Speaker 1: college player, you know, a pretty accomplished player. And so
[5:14] Speaker 1: I'm at the plate, just used to Little League pitching,
[5:16] Speaker 1: and he winds up and threw the first real curveball
[5:21] Speaker 1: I had ever seen. So Little League, you know, they're
[5:25] Speaker 1: throwing middle speed fastballs that year, you know, the easiest
[5:28] Speaker 1: kind of pitch. Well, I stood up there and this
[5:31] Speaker 1: pitch was coming at me, and it was so shocking.
[5:34] Speaker 1: I'd never seen the real movement of a curveball, the
[5:38] Speaker 1: kind of curves and drops, right? And so I remember
[5:42] Speaker 1: I stepped out of the box because I was so
[5:45] Speaker 1: convinced the ball was going to hit me. And then
[5:47] Speaker 1: it breaks right over the plate. To this day, I
[5:50] Speaker 1: remember that experience. Well, look, if I had to stay
[5:55] Speaker 1: at the level of hitting against little league fastballs, well, yeah,
[6:00] Speaker 1: I was a good hitter, but I'd never get any better.
[6:03] Speaker 1: What did the coach do then? He saw the reaction
[6:07] Speaker 1: that I had, and he then started working with me.
[6:11] Speaker 1: of how to wait on a pitch, how to see
[6:14] Speaker 1: the spin of the ball, how to anticipate a curveball,
[6:18] Speaker 1: how to discern that difference, how to stand in there,
[6:21] Speaker 1: don't jump out of the batter's box. And he made me,
[6:26] Speaker 1: by this resistance, a much better hitter. By putting up
[6:32] Speaker 1: an obstacle in front of me, like throwing me a
[6:34] Speaker 1: real curveball, he made me a better hitter. Let me
[6:38] Speaker 1: give you an analogy, but now from analogous experience from
[6:42] Speaker 1: my academic life. So maybe a couple years later, I'm
[6:45] Speaker 1: a freshman at Fenwick High School outside Chicago and take
[6:50] Speaker 1: an English class. We had a great teacher. He died
[6:53] Speaker 1: not long ago, just a few years ago, and his
[6:55] Speaker 1: name was Mr. Langenderfer. We all made fun of his name,
[6:59] Speaker 1: of course, being high school kids. But Mr. Langenderfer was
[7:03] Speaker 1: an outstanding teacher, and he taught English grammar and composition.
[7:09] Speaker 1: And he was a tough teacher. The ones you remember, right,
[7:13] Speaker 1: are the tough teachers you had. And every week he
[7:16] Speaker 1: made us write an essay. And we'd hand them in
[7:19] Speaker 1: and he'd grade them. But then he would choose what
[7:22] Speaker 1: he thought was the best essay and what he thought
[7:24] Speaker 1: was the worst essay. Now, he wouldn't give the names.
[7:26] Speaker 1: He wouldn't humiliate us that way. But he would read
[7:29] Speaker 1: what he thought was a good essay and tell us why.
[7:32] Speaker 1: And then he'd read a bad essay and point out
[7:37] Speaker 1: what was wrong with it. Well, I remember one time,
[7:39] Speaker 1: I still remember it vividly. It was 50 years ago.
[7:43] Speaker 1: He's reading this as a bad essay. It was mine.
[7:47] Speaker 1: It was my essay. And even though he didn't give
[7:50] Speaker 1: the name, I was so embarrassed. I was so humiliated.
[7:53] Speaker 1: And he was ruthless going through the syntax, the grammar,
[7:57] Speaker 1: the spelling, the sentence structure, everything. And just pointing out
[8:02] Speaker 1: how terrible this essay was. Well, look, look. I've spent
[8:07] Speaker 1: most of my life as a writer. I have a doctorate,
[8:12] Speaker 1: and I've written 30 books, and I write almost every day.
[8:16] Speaker 1: I almost every day think of him and think of
[8:21] Speaker 1: something he taught me. I would have been the worst
[8:24] Speaker 1: writer in the world unless he had resisted me, had
[8:29] Speaker 1: put up an obstacle to me, had humiliated me even,
[8:33] Speaker 1: and he did humiliate me. but I wouldn't have gotten
[8:37] Speaker 1: any better if that hadn't happened. He wouldn't have called
[8:41] Speaker 1: forth the power of writing unless he had opposed me.
[8:46] Speaker 1: I'll give you one more example. It's now a few
[8:48] Speaker 1: years after that. I'm at Catholic U in Washington. I'm
[8:52] Speaker 1: studying philosophy, right? I love philosophy, and I kind of
[8:55] Speaker 1: find my way to read these great texts. And in class,
[8:58] Speaker 1: I could understand what was being said, and I would
[9:00] Speaker 1: raise a question and get an answer. Okay. Well, one day,
[9:03] Speaker 1: I think it was my second year at Catholic U,
[9:07] Speaker 1: It was a class with Dr. Dan Dahlstrom, who eventually
[9:09] Speaker 1: became my master's thesis director. Wonderful guy. He was a
[9:12] Speaker 1: very young man at the time. And Hegel, a Heidegger specialist.
[9:16] Speaker 1: So we really admired him and brilliant fellow. Well, in class,
[9:20] Speaker 1: we were talking about this famous problem of divine foreknowledge
[9:23] Speaker 1: and human freedom. How can we be free if God
[9:26] Speaker 1: knows what's going to happen and God is omniscient and infallible, right?
[9:30] Speaker 1: It's a classic old problem in philosophy. So he was teaching.
[9:35] Speaker 1: I asked a question. He gave an answer. And then
[9:38] Speaker 1: I asked a follow-up question. And then he gave an answer.
[9:42] Speaker 1: And then I answered back. And I remember he looked
[9:46] Speaker 1: at me. And he's used to teaching undergraduates and all that.
[9:50] Speaker 1: And it kind of winked at me. And he said, okay,
[9:53] Speaker 1: make your case. And at that moment, the class is
[9:58] Speaker 1: watching this professor I really admired was challenging me, don't
[10:04] Speaker 1: just ask a question, but you seem unhappy with the
[10:07] Speaker 1: answer I'm giving, so make your argument. And so I did.
[10:12] Speaker 1: And then he resisted me and answered, and then I
[10:15] Speaker 1: had to answer back. But I remember it to this day,
[10:20] Speaker 1: It felt like wings coming out of my back, that
[10:25] Speaker 1: I was flying for the first time. I wasn't just
[10:30] Speaker 1: learning philosophy or responding to or asking a question. I
[10:35] Speaker 1: was actually philosophizing. Now, poorly and in a jejune manner, sure.
[10:42] Speaker 1: But he was putting up a resistance to me that
[10:46] Speaker 1: was calling forth a deeper capacity, made me a better philosopher.
[10:55] Speaker 1: All right, I'm sure by now I belabored the point.
[10:58] Speaker 1: You get it. Our powers grow through resistance. Now, faith.
[11:08] Speaker 1: What's faith? It's trust in God, right? Do you trust
[11:11] Speaker 1: in God? Yeah, I sure do. And that's why I
[11:15] Speaker 1: am asking God for this, and I expect to get it. Okay?
[11:19] Speaker 1: What if you don't get it right away? I'm pretty
[11:23] Speaker 1: mad about that. How come he's not doing it? I
[11:26] Speaker 1: keep asking. Okay, I'll ask again. I trust in God
[11:30] Speaker 1: and I'm still not getting what I want. Okay. One
[11:36] Speaker 1: option is to give up. Say, okay, I'm done with this.
[11:39] Speaker 1: Like I could have said when that curveball came at me,
[11:41] Speaker 1: I'm done with baseball. I can't handle that. Or when
[11:45] Speaker 1: Dan Dahlstrom said, make your case. I don't know. I'm
[11:48] Speaker 1: not up to making a case. No, but in both
[11:51] Speaker 1: of those instances, I responded to the challenge by deepening
[11:57] Speaker 1: my capacity to hit and my capacity to make an argument.
[12:01] Speaker 1: So faith, faith, trust in God. Does God resist us,
[12:08] Speaker 1: not out of capricious, you know, dislike of us, not
[12:14] Speaker 1: to show off his power. But he resists us precisely
[12:19] Speaker 1: to draw out our trust more and more. Remember I've
[12:24] Speaker 1: quoted before that line from Augustine about prayer, petitionary prayer.
[12:29] Speaker 1: When you ask God for something, and Augustine says, when
[12:32] Speaker 1: you don't get it and you get frustrated, I mean,
[12:35] Speaker 1: why wouldn't God just give it to me? His answer
[12:38] Speaker 1: is because your soul has to expand so as to
[12:44] Speaker 1: receive the gift that God wants to give you. It's
[12:48] Speaker 1: by resistance that your faith grows. You know, you see
[12:52] Speaker 1: it in the spiritual monastic tradition. You know, the idea
[12:55] Speaker 1: of someone coming to a monastery. I want to join
[12:58] Speaker 1: the monastery. No, no, wait outside. Do I have an answer? No, no,
[13:03] Speaker 1: just wait outside. The whole day, maybe the whole night,
[13:08] Speaker 1: next morning. The monk comes out. Oh, you're still there. Yeah,
[13:12] Speaker 1: I want to become a monk. All right, well, we'll
[13:14] Speaker 1: get back to you. What do you mean get back
[13:16] Speaker 1: to me? I've been waiting all night. We'll get back
[13:18] Speaker 1: to you. What's the idea? Well, they're testing to see
[13:22] Speaker 1: whether this hunger for the monastic life can grow to
[13:26] Speaker 1: the point where you're really capable of it. You know,
[13:29] Speaker 1: by the way, watch the movie Fight Club, one of
[13:31] Speaker 1: my favorite movies. And remember, these guys want to join
[13:35] Speaker 1: this little society, and they stand outside. And Brad Pitt
[13:39] Speaker 1: comes out. No, no, no, go away. You're too fat. No, no,
[13:42] Speaker 1: you're too old. You're too young. And he puts them off,
[13:46] Speaker 1: puts them off, puts them off until he knows, okay,
[13:50] Speaker 1: they've got what it takes. That's an old monastic move.
[13:54] Speaker 1: All right, you see my point. The Syrophoenician woman is
[13:58] Speaker 1: not convincing a sinful Jesus to see it her way. Rather,
[14:03] Speaker 1: Jesus the Messiah, the Lord, is convincing testing her by
[14:08] Speaker 1: these three levels of resistance. First, ignoring her. Second, kind
[14:13] Speaker 1: of putting her off. And thirdly, insulting her. But each level,
[14:16] Speaker 1: he's drawing forth a deeper faith. Now listen, and I'll
[14:19] Speaker 1: close with this. After her snappy comeback, you know, even
[14:24] Speaker 1: the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table.
[14:27] Speaker 1: Jesus said to reply, listen, oh woman, great is your faith.
[14:33] Speaker 1: Her faith expanded. Her faith became great precisely in the
[14:38] Speaker 1: process of being resisted. May I humbly suggest, now I'm
[14:42] Speaker 1: in line with Augustine Aquinas and the whole tradition, that's
[14:45] Speaker 1: a better way to read the story of the Syrophoenician woman.
[14:49] Speaker 1: And God bless you.

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