# The Highest Good Is God Alone - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 22 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73038769/the_highest_good_is_god_alone_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. I know I say this
[0:02] Speaker 1: a lot, but the readings today take us to very
[0:05] Speaker 1: holy ground. For this thirty first Sunday of the year,
[0:09] Speaker 1: reading one is taken from the sixth chapter of the
[0:12] Speaker 1: Book of Deuteronomy. I'm going to encourage you to get
[0:14] Speaker 1: out your Bibles and at some point read this sixth
[0:17] Speaker 1: chapter because it contains what's called in Hebrew the Shamah.
[0:22] Speaker 1: It's this prayer that is fundamental to Jewish theology and spirituality.
[0:29] Speaker 1: And here's what makes it doubly sacred today is the
[0:32] Speaker 1: Gospel is a story of the person asking Jesus what's
[0:36] Speaker 1: the greatest teaching of the law, what's the most important law?
[0:40] Speaker 1: And Jesus recites the Shama. So the Son of God,
[0:46] Speaker 1: the Torah made flesh, is now affirming what we hear
[0:51] Speaker 1: in Deuteronomy six. It's like, we can't get any more
[0:56] Speaker 1: sacred or any clearer indication of how we should govern
[1:00] Speaker 1: our lives. So what's the shama? Well, you look in
[1:04] Speaker 1: Deuteronomy six and I'm going to read just the first
[1:07] Speaker 1: famous line, shama israel eja uh. That's Hebrew with the
[1:15] Speaker 1: Chicago accent. By the way, what that means is here Shama, listen,
[1:22] Speaker 1: oh Israel, the Lord, our God is Lord alone, and
[1:28] Speaker 1: then what follows. Therefore, you shall love the Lord your
[1:31] Speaker 1: God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
[1:34] Speaker 1: with all your strength. As I say, it's the it's
[1:38] Speaker 1: the It's the cornerstone of Jewish theology, of Jewish religion
[1:43] Speaker 1: and spirituality. It is, in my judgment, the greatest gift
[1:46] Speaker 1: that Israel gave to the world is this clear, unambiguous monotheism,
[1:54] Speaker 1: the belief in the One God. Now I can make
[1:57] Speaker 1: a metaphysical argument for this. We say that God is
[2:00] Speaker 1: the unmoved mover. God is the uncaused cause. God is
[2:04] Speaker 1: the non contingent source of contingent being. God is the
[2:08] Speaker 1: unconditioned reality. All of that, the implication is that God
[2:13] Speaker 1: must be purely actual. There's nothing in God's being that
[2:16] Speaker 1: needs further realization, no cause that can influence him from
[2:20] Speaker 1: the outside. That means, in thomas a Quaisis language, God
[2:24] Speaker 1: is octus, purest He's pure act octus and Thomas's Latin
[2:29] Speaker 1: translates energeia in Greek. So energy, God is pure realization,
[2:35] Speaker 1: actualized reality. Well, see, if you have two things A
[2:39] Speaker 1: and B, why A is not B B is not a.
[2:43] Speaker 1: That means both A and B are marked by something
[2:45] Speaker 1: like potentiality or non being or contingency. And that's why
[2:52] Speaker 1: God cannot be many. We can't speak of many gods,
[2:57] Speaker 1: or Christ will say in God, essence and existence coincide.
[3:01] Speaker 1: So to be God is to be to be God's
[3:04] Speaker 1: nature is simply being itself. Well what's outside of that? Well,
[3:08] Speaker 1: I can't name something truly existent that's outside of that.
[3:12] Speaker 1: So God's unity is a metaphysical truth. Now I'm not
[3:18] Speaker 1: teaching metaphysics today. I'm preaching so what I think most
[3:22] Speaker 1: important for our purposes the spiritual implications of this great claim. Here,
[3:31] Speaker 1: Oh Israel, look at first of all, Shamah, listen here.
[3:35] Speaker 1: Greek culture is very much ordered towards the visual, to
[3:40] Speaker 1: see the forms, to see the light. Right, I got it.
[3:46] Speaker 1: I understand like light is even the light bulb image. Well,
[3:51] Speaker 1: there's something about the eyes and about seeing that puts
[3:55] Speaker 1: us in a way in the driver's seae. Oh, I
[3:57] Speaker 1: can see that even things that are that aren't trying
[4:01] Speaker 1: to show themselves, but I can uncover them with my
[4:04] Speaker 1: kind of eagle eyed vision, which is why. And I
[4:08] Speaker 1: think there's something to this. The scholar suggests the listening
[4:11] Speaker 1: element is so important in Judaism because it's not an
[4:16] Speaker 1: aggressive rationality that comes to see things. It's not with
[4:22] Speaker 1: the egle eyes of our minds that things light up
[4:24] Speaker 1: and become clear. No. No, when it comes to God,
[4:28] Speaker 1: we're not in the driver's seat. Rather, we have to
[4:33] Speaker 1: wait to hear a voice. God is a person who
[4:40] Speaker 1: has to disclose himself to us. It's my listening is
[4:46] Speaker 1: so important. Think of you know, the beginning of salvation history.
[4:50] Speaker 1: It's really with Abraham who hears the voice. He hears
[4:56] Speaker 1: the higher call. He's not in control of it. He
[4:59] Speaker 1: was set up in his life and or of the keldes,
[5:02] Speaker 1: and he's an old man with his family around him,
[5:06] Speaker 1: and he don't how to go anywhere. He had no
[5:08] Speaker 1: further plans. But then comes this voice, comes this summons.
[5:13] Speaker 1: It's true in all the prophets, true in Jonah. It's
[5:15] Speaker 1: true in those whom Jesus calls Shamah, Israel. Listen, Israel.
[5:23] Speaker 1: The Higher Voice is summoning you. And then why is
[5:28] Speaker 1: the stress placed upon the unity of God? The Lord,
[5:33] Speaker 1: your God is Lord alone. Well, first of all, Joseph
[5:37] Speaker 1: Rothsinger saw this the Shamah is echoed in the Great
[5:42] Speaker 1: Christian Creeds when we say credo in unum deum, I
[5:48] Speaker 1: believe in one God. It's very important, you know, go
[5:53] Speaker 1: across the cultures of the world, across time, you're going
[5:56] Speaker 1: to find a lot of civilizations that believed in many
[5:59] Speaker 1: god gods, even very high civilizations Greece, Enrollment, and so on.
[6:03] Speaker 1: Looking in the Hindu context, the belief in the many gods. Listen, Israel,
[6:11] Speaker 1: the Lord, your God is Lord alone. Now what was
[6:16] Speaker 1: that mean? That means there's no competition when it comes
[6:22] Speaker 1: to the summum bonum. The highest good, the highest good
[6:28] Speaker 1: there can be at that level, no competition. See, if
[6:34] Speaker 1: there are many gods, well, then oh there's all kinds
[6:36] Speaker 1: of high goods. I can pursue this one, that one.
[6:38] Speaker 1: Maybe I get tired of this one and I go
[6:40] Speaker 1: to that one. If God is one, then the highest
[6:45] Speaker 1: good is God alone. And therefore the soul cannot be
[6:53] Speaker 1: should not be divided among the variety of goods, but
[7:00] Speaker 1: it must be as Kuyr put it about one thing.
[7:06] Speaker 1: No country, no culture, no political leader, not in your family,
[7:12] Speaker 1: not anything can compete with the summumbonum, with the supreme Good.
[7:23] Speaker 1: The constant temptation of us sinners is to violate this principle,
[7:28] Speaker 1: isn't it is? I say, oh, I might pay lip
[7:31] Speaker 1: service to God. Oh, sure, God, and God is won.
[7:35] Speaker 1: But look at your life. What de facto is the sumumbonum?
[7:41] Speaker 1: There's no question more important than that in the spiritual order.
[7:44] Speaker 1: What in your life right now, if you're being brutally
[7:47] Speaker 1: honest and a good spiritual director, good confessor will press
[7:51] Speaker 1: this with you, what is the sumumbonum? And now, if
[7:55] Speaker 1: we're honest spiritually, we might come up with something like
[8:00] Speaker 1: my career, I guess, or my family, or my political party,
[8:06] Speaker 1: or my obsession with history, whatever it is. There's something
[8:13] Speaker 1: highest that's governing my life, that's that's pulling me in
[8:17] Speaker 1: its direction. Think of a sink and everything's going down
[8:21] Speaker 1: one drain. Well, ultimately our lives are like that. Shamah
[8:27] Speaker 1: Ysrael here alway Israel, the Lord, your God is Lord alone.
[8:34] Speaker 1: I your God am a jealous God. We hear. Don't
[8:39] Speaker 1: play that as God having emotional issues about It's this point.
[8:44] Speaker 1: It's this point that's being made. I the Lord, your God,
[8:47] Speaker 1: am a jealous God. I don't brook any opposition. There
[8:50] Speaker 1: can be no opposition here alway. Israel, the Lord your
[8:54] Speaker 1: God is Lord alone. So the whole of our life
[9:00] Speaker 1: life must fall now into order along that line. And
[9:05] Speaker 1: you say, okay, okay, I get that. And the implication
[9:09] Speaker 1: which Jesus confirms right, is therefore you love the Lord
[9:13] Speaker 1: your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and
[9:15] Speaker 1: all your strength. You say, well, I guess I've got
[9:18] Speaker 1: to become a Trappist monk. My entire life must be
[9:22] Speaker 1: utterly dedicated to God. Well. No, let's go back to
[9:26] Speaker 1: metaphysics again. So all that exists reflects God. All that
[9:34] Speaker 1: exists comes from God, and therefore bears the imprint of
[9:38] Speaker 1: God's beauty and mind and perfection. Therefore, can I love
[9:45] Speaker 1: the Lord my God in and through all things? Yes?
[9:51] Speaker 1: Can I see them under the headship of the Summumbotum
[9:55] Speaker 1: the highest Good? Can I see goods ordered in a
[9:58] Speaker 1: kind of hierarchic away. Can my life now be properly
[10:03] Speaker 1: structured in this harmonious pattern under the aegis of the
[10:09] Speaker 1: summum Bonum. Yeah, Now I begin to see Ah, my
[10:14] Speaker 1: children whom I love, They're a reflection of God's beauty
[10:19] Speaker 1: and God's love and God's perfection. So in loving them,
[10:22] Speaker 1: I am loving God. In loving God, I have a
[10:25] Speaker 1: greater love for them. In loving my country and loving
[10:29] Speaker 1: what's good in it, I'm seeing some reflection of God.
[10:32] Speaker 1: And so my dedication to politics, to making the world
[10:36] Speaker 1: a better place, is reflective of God's desire to make
[10:41] Speaker 1: the world a better place. All the proximate goods can
[10:47] Speaker 1: now be seen in relation to the summum bonum, to
[10:51] Speaker 1: the highest good. Okay, so you might be thinking, all right,
[10:56] Speaker 1: I kind of got that, But what exactly is is
[11:00] Speaker 1: the summum bonum? What exactly is the highest Go you,
[11:04] Speaker 1: says God, But what does that mean? Go back to Jesus.
[11:10] Speaker 1: Who is Jesus not just someone speaking about God like
[11:13] Speaker 1: a prophet, but the Word. Remember Hero Israel. Hear a word,
[11:20] Speaker 1: He's the Word made flesh. Therefore, what does God want?
[11:24] Speaker 1: What is the sumum bonum? Watch him? Watch him? What
[11:28] Speaker 1: does he do? What does he say? What is he desired?
[11:32] Speaker 1: That's what you should order your life toward. Now I'm
[11:36] Speaker 1: going to take a last step here. We've done some
[11:38] Speaker 1: kind of high theology, just too, just a little bit more.
[11:42] Speaker 1: What do we see in Jesus now, But the love
[11:47] Speaker 1: that God is because the Father sent the son all
[11:54] Speaker 1: the way down to God forsakenness and then called him
[11:56] Speaker 1: back in the Holy Spirit so as to gather a
[12:00] Speaker 1: us into the inner life of God, which is a
[12:04] Speaker 1: life of mutual love of the divine persons. Ah ah,
[12:09] Speaker 1: Now I understand more clearly who the God of Israel is.
[12:15] Speaker 1: How does Saint John put it? God is love, the Father,
[12:22] Speaker 1: the lover, the Son, the beloved, the Spirit, the love
[12:25] Speaker 1: that they share. Now we can complete the picture. Here Israel,
[12:31] Speaker 1: the Lord, your God is Lord alone, is one. God
[12:34] Speaker 1: is one summum bonum. All the other goods are in
[12:37] Speaker 1: relation to it. And what precisely is that summum bonum? Wow?
[12:46] Speaker 1: So that's it, everybody. That's that's Christian theology. You might say,
[12:52] Speaker 1: everything else is a footnote, everything else is a commentary.
[12:56] Speaker 1: What's Christian theology is to order your life life according
[13:01] Speaker 1: to the love that God is. Think here of the
[13:05] Speaker 1: little flower. We'll go from the heights of Thomas Aquinas
[13:07] Speaker 1: to the simplicity of the little flower. But it's the
[13:10] Speaker 1: same thing. What's the little way of terrez, what's in
[13:16] Speaker 1: every moment the opportunity of love? How in every moment,
[13:22] Speaker 1: do I will the good of the other. You know what,
[13:24] Speaker 1: when you do that, you've ordered your life to the
[13:27] Speaker 1: sumum bonum you've heard, you've heard the word. The Lord,
[13:35] Speaker 1: our God is Lord alone. Yeah, and his name is Love.
[13:40] Speaker 1: So order your life that way. Put all the goods
[13:44] Speaker 1: of your life in relation to that highest good. It's
[13:48] Speaker 1: exactly what Jesus teaches, it's exactly what Deuteronomy teaches. It's
[13:53] Speaker 1: the center of the spiritual life. And God bless you.

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