# A Tour of the Ten Commandments - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 18 Aug 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754551/a_tour_of_the_ten_commandments_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. On this third Sunday of Lent,
[0:03] Speaker 1: the Church asked us to look at one of the
[0:05] Speaker 1: really great texts in the Old Testament, namely the Ten
[0:08] Speaker 1: Commandments from the Book of Exodus. I've said before that
[0:12] Speaker 1: lends the time of getting back to basics spiritually, and
[0:15] Speaker 1: this is a good way to do it. Just as
[0:17] Speaker 1: an athlete will go back to the fundamental moves of
[0:20] Speaker 1: his sport, so in the moral and spiritual order, we
[0:23] Speaker 1: go back to fundamentals, go back to basics. Can I
[0:27] Speaker 1: suggest you go back to this text in Exodus. If
[0:31] Speaker 1: you don't have the Ten Commandments clearly in mind, commit
[0:34] Speaker 1: them to memory. They're wonderful way to examine your conscience
[0:38] Speaker 1: as you prepare for confession, even at the end of
[0:40] Speaker 1: the day, to go through the Ten Commandments, say well,
[0:43] Speaker 1: how did I do in regard to these basics of
[0:46] Speaker 1: the spiritual life? So I want to say in this
[0:48] Speaker 1: brief homily something very simple about each one. We know
[0:53] Speaker 1: that the Ten Commandments are divided into two tables or tablets, right,
[0:57] Speaker 1: the first three dealing with our relation to God, and
[1:00] Speaker 1: then the last seven dealing with our relations with each other.
[1:04] Speaker 1: The first table is by leaps and bounds the most important.
[1:09] Speaker 1: It's a basic biblical intuition. Having our relationship with God
[1:14] Speaker 1: right is the condition for the possibility of anything else
[1:18] Speaker 1: being right in our lives. If the relation to God
[1:20] Speaker 1: is off kilter, everything else will become off kilter. And
[1:23] Speaker 1: so we pay special attention to the First Table Commandment one.
[1:30] Speaker 1: I'm the Lord your God. You shall have no other
[1:32] Speaker 1: gods besides me. Now, there's a trivial way to read
[1:36] Speaker 1: this that God is sort of this petty jealous you know, tyrant. No, No,
[1:42] Speaker 1: it's the most important element in the spiritual life. God
[1:46] Speaker 1: doesn't need us. God doesn't need anything. So it's not
[1:48] Speaker 1: a matter of God falling into a jealous you know,
[1:51] Speaker 1: a snit here. When there's clarity about what we worship,
[1:59] Speaker 1: the rest of our life life falls into order. When
[2:02] Speaker 1: there's ambiguity about that, then there's difficulty across the board.
[2:06] Speaker 1: And I've said this to you before. We all worship something.
[2:10] Speaker 1: There's always something in your life of supreme value. There's
[2:15] Speaker 1: some center of gravity. If I can shift metaphors, now
[2:19] Speaker 1: it's it could be a pleasure, it could be money,
[2:21] Speaker 1: it could be your country, it could be your family,
[2:24] Speaker 1: all sorts of things. You shall have no other God
[2:27] Speaker 1: besides Me. In other words, any act of idolatry turning
[2:32] Speaker 1: something other than God into God will will throw the
[2:36] Speaker 1: rest of your life off kilter. Clarity about the one
[2:41] Speaker 1: God whom we worship. That's the most important Psyche commandment.
[2:47] Speaker 1: You shall not take the name of the Lord your
[2:49] Speaker 1: God in vain. Now there's a legitimate sense here where
[2:53] Speaker 1: we shouldn't swear as we put it, and we shouldn't
[2:56] Speaker 1: use the name of God in this sort of disrespectful way.
[2:59] Speaker 1: And that's certainly true. Probably though what they had in
[3:02] Speaker 1: mind here in the Old Testament was something like the
[3:06] Speaker 1: use of God's name in a superstitious way as a
[3:10] Speaker 1: kind of incantation. I'm going to use the name of
[3:15] Speaker 1: God to get God to do something that I want. See,
[3:18] Speaker 1: now we're getting close to the spiritual problem here. The
[3:23] Speaker 1: idea is to worship God. That means God is my
[3:26] Speaker 1: highest value. I've turned my life over to God. But
[3:31] Speaker 1: there's a permanent danger in the spiritual order that I'm
[3:35] Speaker 1: going to try to use God for my purposes. I
[3:39] Speaker 1: spoke last week about falling in love with the benefits
[3:42] Speaker 1: of God. If I can manipulate God so as to
[3:45] Speaker 1: get what I want. See, now I'm in bad spiritual territory.
[3:50] Speaker 1: So don't use the name of the Lord your God
[3:52] Speaker 1: in vain means, don't think you can ever manipulate God
[3:58] Speaker 1: or put God to the test. No, no, God puts
[4:03] Speaker 1: us to the test. Sometimes. We heard that with Abraham,
[4:05] Speaker 1: last week, saw it with Job. But we don't put
[4:09] Speaker 1: God to the test. We don't use his name as
[4:11] Speaker 1: a kind of manipulative incantation. Third commandment, Remember to keep
[4:19] Speaker 1: holy the Sabbath day. How basic this was everyone to
[4:23] Speaker 1: the Biblical Israelite. The Sabbath not just a day of rest,
[4:29] Speaker 1: but the day of worship, the day when we, in
[4:34] Speaker 1: an embodied, concrete, conscious way, order our lives through ritual
[4:40] Speaker 1: practice to God. And every part of that I think matters.
[4:44] Speaker 1: It's so easy to you to make this abstract. Oh sure,
[4:47] Speaker 1: I believe in God. I've got this idea of God
[4:50] Speaker 1: in my mind. Well that's not sufficient. Oh yeah, God's
[4:55] Speaker 1: the central value of my life. Yeah, but do you
[4:58] Speaker 1: express that and act that out ritually. See, if we
[5:02] Speaker 1: were angels, that might be enough. I just have this
[5:05] Speaker 1: kind of clear notion. But we're not angels. We're embodied spirits,
[5:10] Speaker 1: as we heard a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, to
[5:14] Speaker 1: make my worship of God real to me, it has
[5:18] Speaker 1: to be expressed in this disciplined and regular and ritualized way.
[5:24] Speaker 1: May I suggest everyone that the falling away of so
[5:27] Speaker 1: many in the Western culture from keeping holy the Sabbath
[5:32] Speaker 1: has rate havoc. That when we stop signaling to ourselves
[5:38] Speaker 1: and to others that we do indeed worship God, things
[5:42] Speaker 1: tend to fall apart in us. You know, the test
[5:45] Speaker 1: is from oh yeah, I believe God, Oh yeah, God's
[5:47] Speaker 1: most important. Well show me, show me what does that
[5:51] Speaker 1: look like in your life? Keep holy the Sabbath day.
[5:57] Speaker 1: Now that's the first table, the first three commandments having
[6:00] Speaker 1: to do with our relation to God. Nothing more important.
[6:02] Speaker 1: Now the second table, remaining seven having to do with
[6:06] Speaker 1: our relation to each other. Now, why, Well, if you're
[6:09] Speaker 1: in touch with God, who is love, that love is
[6:13] Speaker 1: going to surge through you into the world. That's the
[6:15] Speaker 1: way it works. The more you're connected to God, the
[6:18] Speaker 1: more that love will flow through you into the world.
[6:21] Speaker 1: So fourth commandment, honor your father and your mother. Well, yes,
[6:26] Speaker 1: your literal father and mother. But most of the commentators
[6:29] Speaker 1: say this means something like reverence and honor, and love
[6:34] Speaker 1: your family. If you claim to be a person of God,
[6:38] Speaker 1: which means a person of love, but you can't love
[6:40] Speaker 1: your own family, something is really off in you. If
[6:44] Speaker 1: you can't love those who are nearest and dearest to you, well,
[6:47] Speaker 1: then how will you love anybody else? So starting at home,
[6:51] Speaker 1: starting with those closest and dearest to us, of course
[6:54] Speaker 1: we should love them. Fifth Commandment, You shall not kill,
[7:01] Speaker 1: probably best rendered or better rendered. You shall not commit
[7:04] Speaker 1: murder because you know there are exceptions we talk about,
[7:06] Speaker 1: just war and self defense and so on, where you
[7:09] Speaker 1: know killing might be morally justified, but you shall not murder. Now,
[7:13] Speaker 1: I know most of those listen to me. I hope
[7:15] Speaker 1: this is true are not murderers. They have no intention
[7:18] Speaker 1: of murdering anybody. But you know, it's something not the
[7:21] Speaker 1: case that murder isn't the problem in our society. How
[7:26] Speaker 1: about the sixty million abortions since Roe v. Wade was passed.
[7:31] Speaker 1: How about the almost casual murders taking place on the
[7:34] Speaker 1: streets of our major cities. How about euthanasia laws, etc.
[7:38] Speaker 1: Et cetera. There is a growing indifference to life in
[7:42] Speaker 1: our society. John Paul two named it the culture of death,
[7:46] Speaker 1: and so we need to be alive to this problem
[7:51] Speaker 1: of an indifference to the dignity of human life. You
[7:55] Speaker 1: shall not kill. Six commandment commit adultery. And I know
[8:02] Speaker 1: everyone and his brother thinks the church is obsessed with
[8:04] Speaker 1: sex and all that. Well, we don't get to sexual
[8:07] Speaker 1: matters till the sixth commandment. So if it was, you know,
[8:11] Speaker 1: commandment number one. But look, does anybody doubt that adultery,
[8:17] Speaker 1: that that the breaking of the marriage vow, being unfaithful
[8:21] Speaker 1: to your spouse is a source of enormous mischief, And
[8:25] Speaker 1: I mean inside the people involved and to those around them.
[8:30] Speaker 1: You have to be blind not to see the deleterious
[8:34] Speaker 1: effects of the of infidelity and the breakdown of marriage
[8:38] Speaker 1: and the family and all of that. Don't tell anyone
[8:41] Speaker 1: who's been involved in pastoral ministry that this is a
[8:44] Speaker 1: minor problem. Well, the biblical authors knew that very well.
[8:48] Speaker 1: And if the family is the building block of the society,
[8:51] Speaker 1: then our whole society suffers from adultery. So stop it.
[8:56] Speaker 1: The Bible says seventh, you shall not steal. I've talked
[9:02] Speaker 1: to people, It's never happened to me, thank God. But
[9:04] Speaker 1: whose homes have been ransacked, they come home and they
[9:07] Speaker 1: realize a thief has been there. When something's stolen from you,
[9:12] Speaker 1: there's something that's uniquely awful about that experience. When something's
[9:18] Speaker 1: taken from you. It's such an aggressive, violent, invasive move.
[9:24] Speaker 1: It's one of the in that sense, least loving things
[9:28] Speaker 1: you can do. If to love is to will the
[9:30] Speaker 1: good of the other, stealing is taking good from somebody.
[9:33] Speaker 1: That's why it's such a violation of love. Now, there
[9:37] Speaker 1: is that kind of direct stealing, someone breaking in and
[9:40] Speaker 1: you know, committing a burglary. But we know, fellow sinners.
[9:43] Speaker 1: There's a lot of ways we steal things from people,
[9:47] Speaker 1: a lot of ways we rob them of good things,
[9:50] Speaker 1: whether it's their reputation. You know, watch how we enhance
[9:57] Speaker 1: life or take life people. Do we breathe life into
[10:02] Speaker 1: a room or do we suck life out of a room?
[10:06] Speaker 1: That's a form of stealing. It seems to me. Eight
[10:10] Speaker 1: I think is very important today. You shall not bear
[10:14] Speaker 1: a false witness against your neighbor calumny. We call this
[10:20] Speaker 1: a willful lie about someone whose purpose is to harm.
[10:24] Speaker 1: Why do we do it? Well? It makes us feel better,
[10:26] Speaker 1: makes us feel more exalted, I can drag you down.
[10:29] Speaker 1: I seem higher. Where's this flourishing? We all know online? Right?
[10:36] Speaker 1: The social media culture has caused this to flourish, To
[10:41] Speaker 1: bear false witness against our neighbors, to say all kinds
[10:44] Speaker 1: of lying and calumnious things. Can I urge everybody, especially
[10:50] Speaker 1: during when to watch this tendency, especially as you use
[10:53] Speaker 1: social media. When I'm saying something about a person, is
[10:59] Speaker 1: it true? And why am I saying it in the
[11:02] Speaker 1: first place? To ask those two very good questions before
[11:06] Speaker 1: you post something online. I'd highly recommend it bearing false witness.
[11:12] Speaker 1: Watch the eighth commandment, I'll bring nine to ten together.
[11:16] Speaker 1: You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. You shall not
[11:19] Speaker 1: covet your neighbor's wife. It's very interesting that word covet.
[11:23] Speaker 1: I've talked to you before about rene Gjerrar, the great philosopher.
[11:28] Speaker 1: He talked about the triangular quality of desire, that we
[11:32] Speaker 1: rarely want something simply because it's attractive to us. Very
[11:36] Speaker 1: often we want it because somebody else wants it. Right,
[11:40] Speaker 1: So why is that object so appealing to me? Well,
[11:42] Speaker 1: because that person wants it, and their desire of it
[11:45] Speaker 1: awakens in me a desire for it? Wats this? Most
[11:49] Speaker 1: of advertising is based on that principle. How come I
[11:52] Speaker 1: want certain things? Well, I discover some famous person wants them.
[11:56] Speaker 1: Watch two kids playing together. One kid is indifferent into
[12:00] Speaker 1: a toy until his friend comes in and wants it.
[12:04] Speaker 1: To see what you're uncovered? Was the source of so
[12:07] Speaker 1: much of our tension and violence in our society? Is
[12:11] Speaker 1: this triangular quality of desire? Well, the Bible knew about
[12:15] Speaker 1: it a long time before. When as you are see,
[12:18] Speaker 1: don't covet your neighbor's wife, and don't covet your neighbor's goods.
[12:23] Speaker 1: I mean, desire something for yourself. That's fine, but stop
[12:27] Speaker 1: getting into these mimetic triangular conflicts. Watch how we desire?
[12:36] Speaker 1: I like that The old word covet is good there
[12:38] Speaker 1: because it it sort of signals something fresh in our minds.
[12:42] Speaker 1: Watch how you covet things? Why do you want the
[12:46] Speaker 1: things you want? Is it because someone else desires them?
[12:50] Speaker 1: If so, we're on a short route to conflict and chaos. Okay,
[12:56] Speaker 1: that's a quick little tour. At about thirteen minutes through
[13:00] Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments, could I urge you, len's a great
[13:03] Speaker 1: time for it. Go back to the Book of Exodus.
[13:05] Speaker 1: Find this text. Walk through these ten commandments, memorize them
[13:10] Speaker 1: if you can use them next time you go to confession.
[13:13] Speaker 1: If you go to confession during lem which you all
[13:14] Speaker 1: should do, use the Ten Commandments as a way of
[13:18] Speaker 1: examining your conscience. And God bless you.

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