# The Heart of Christianity - Bishop Barron Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 20 Sep 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75098723/the_heart_of_christianity_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, we come to this 18th
[0:02] Speaker 1: Sunday of Ordinary Time, and I want to focus on
[0:05] Speaker 1: the second reading, which is from St. Paul. And I
[0:08] Speaker 1: don't preach about Paul enough. He's the first really great
[0:11] Speaker 1: genius theologian of our tradition. And we're reading from Romans here,
[0:15] Speaker 1: especially Romans chapter 8. Get out your Bibles. And reading
[0:22] Speaker 1: Romans right through is a little complicated without a good commentary.
[0:26] Speaker 1: But find chapter 8. read that because it represents the
[0:30] Speaker 1: kind of conclusion or climax to an argument Paul's been making.
[0:34] Speaker 1: You know, Paul is a man of great passion, obviously,
[0:36] Speaker 1: but he's also a man of great intellect. And he
[0:38] Speaker 1: was formed in the scriptures, of course, Hebrew scriptures, but
[0:42] Speaker 1: also in Greek thought, Greek philosophy, and especially Greek rhetoric.
[0:46] Speaker 1: And you can sense, especially in Romans, Paul almost like
[0:50] Speaker 1: a lawyer laying out his case point by point. Well,
[0:54] Speaker 1: Romans 8 represents a sort of culminating point in that argument.
[0:57] Speaker 1: And the reading for today is the rhetorical, very poetic
[1:02] Speaker 1: high point of that conclusion. So we've got to pay attention.
[1:07] Speaker 1: This is one of the really great theologians of the
[1:10] Speaker 1: Church naming what's essential to Christianity. Now, I want to
[1:14] Speaker 1: begin with the last line of our passage for today.
[1:18] Speaker 1: After listing all sorts of things that could separate us
[1:21] Speaker 1: from God's love, Paul says this, None of this can
[1:27] Speaker 1: separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
[1:32] Speaker 1: our Lord. That's the gospel, everybody, if you want. None
[1:38] Speaker 1: of these things— and I'll go through them— can separate us from
[1:41] Speaker 1: the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now,
[1:45] Speaker 1: in his Greek, Christos Iesus Kurios, he would have said.
[1:50] Speaker 1: But I always think with Paul, you know, shaped by
[1:52] Speaker 1: the Hebrew Scriptures, he was thinking— Mashiach Yeshua Adonai. The
[1:59] Speaker 1: anointed one, Mashiach, that meant the new David, the new king.
[2:04] Speaker 1: The king, new David, Jesus. And then he calls him Adonai. Now,
[2:11] Speaker 1: that's saying a lot for someone trained in the Jewish tradition,
[2:15] Speaker 1: because Adonai was a term used of God himself. When
[2:19] Speaker 1: you wouldn't use the sacred name of God, the Tetragrammaton,
[2:22] Speaker 1: you'd use instead this term, Adonai, Lord. Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now,
[2:32] Speaker 1: with that in mind, go right back to the beginning
[2:34] Speaker 1: of Romans, when Paul's introducing himself. And he says this,
[2:39] Speaker 1: I'm here to declare the gospel concerning his son, descended
[2:44] Speaker 1: from David, according to the flesh, there's Mashiach, there's David,
[2:48] Speaker 1: the anointed one, and declared son of God with power,
[2:51] Speaker 1: according to the spirit of holiness, listen now, by resurrection
[2:56] Speaker 1: from the dead, then the phrase, Jesus Christ our Lord.
[3:01] Speaker 1: There it is again, Yeshua Mashiach Adonai, Jesus Christos Kyrios.
[3:07] Speaker 1: What's the hinge? What's the hinge upon which all this turns?
[3:11] Speaker 1: There's that little phrase, by resurrection from the dead. Now,
[3:17] Speaker 1: there it is, everybody. That's the heart of Paul's teaching.
[3:20] Speaker 1: That's the heart of Christianity— That's if you want the gospel.
[3:25] Speaker 1: That's the good news that you won Gilead. Jesus, done
[3:31] Speaker 1: to death by the powers that be at his time.
[3:36] Speaker 1: Everything in the world came at him. But through the
[3:40] Speaker 1: power of God, raised from the dead, he is anointed one, Christos, Mashiach,
[3:48] Speaker 1: and he's Lord, he's Adonai. That's the gospel, everybody. You know,
[3:56] Speaker 1: look through Paul's writings. You'll find it's almost like a refrain,
[3:59] Speaker 1: almost comically so, so often repeated. Anastasis, anastasis, anastasis. It
[4:05] Speaker 1: means literally standing up again. Resurrection, resurrection. It was so
[4:12] Speaker 1: central to his preaching that some people thought, oh, he's
[4:14] Speaker 1: declaring a new God called Anastasis. He was declaring the
[4:20] Speaker 1: God of Israel. who has manifested his power in the
[4:24] Speaker 1: standing up again, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
[4:30] Speaker 1: And see, upon that, everybody, everything turns. For Paul, this
[4:37] Speaker 1: was a revolution. This was a remaking of the old world.
[4:43] Speaker 1: You know, look at the book of Revelation and all
[4:45] Speaker 1: those texts about, you know, the destruction of the old
[4:47] Speaker 1: world and the stars falling and the seas churning and
[4:51] Speaker 1: earthquakes and so on. Well, that's symbolic talk about the
[4:56] Speaker 1: end of the old world. The old world is giving
[5:00] Speaker 1: way because of the earthquake of the resurrection. A new
[5:04] Speaker 1: world has been revealed. Why does St. Peter talk about
[5:08] Speaker 1: anticipating a new heavens and a new earth? Because he's
[5:11] Speaker 1: seen the old heavens and earth shaken, questioned, and now
[5:17] Speaker 1: we're waiting the full revelation of a new heavens and
[5:21] Speaker 1: a new earth. That's the gospel. Now, I'm going to
[5:26] Speaker 1: come back to our passage in chapter 8, because what
[5:29] Speaker 1: does Paul see in this? He sees this is the
[5:33] Speaker 1: source of peace. This is the shalom, right? It was
[5:40] Speaker 1: a great, beautiful Hebrew term. This is the shalom that
[5:43] Speaker 1: we all want, and it's going to come as a
[5:46] Speaker 1: function of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. of
[5:50] Speaker 1: this remaking of the whole world. Okay? So with that
[5:55] Speaker 1: in mind, let's go back to this passage, which again
[5:59] Speaker 1: is rhetorically so beautiful, poetic even. Paul says, What will
[6:05] Speaker 1: separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress,
[6:12] Speaker 1: or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? Boy,
[6:19] Speaker 1: he's saying a mouthful there, isn't he? Go through these.
[6:23] Speaker 1: These are all things in his time and ours that
[6:27] Speaker 1: would tempt us to say, there's no God. There's no
[6:31] Speaker 1: God that cares for me. There's no God of love
[6:33] Speaker 1: who's looking out for me. Anguish or distress. I mean,
[6:36] Speaker 1: we live, W.H. Auden said that, in the age of anxiety,
[6:40] Speaker 1: don't we? Well, Paul knew about anguish too, but I
[6:43] Speaker 1: think especially in our time, this sort of existential angst
[6:46] Speaker 1: a lot of people feel, this sense of meaninglessness. purposelessness. Well,
[6:52] Speaker 1: that can seem to separate us from God. How about persecution?
[6:56] Speaker 1: You know, there are milder forms of persecution that exist
[6:59] Speaker 1: even in our Western culture, but gosh, go around the
[7:02] Speaker 1: world today. Can I suggest in the Middle East? Can
[7:04] Speaker 1: I suggest in places like Nigeria? Can I suggest in
[7:07] Speaker 1: places like China? Is there a direct and violent persecution
[7:12] Speaker 1: of Christians? You bet there is. So as Paul sensed
[7:16] Speaker 1: it in his own life, we still sense it today.
[7:19] Speaker 1: How about famine or nakedness? Think of people going through
[7:23] Speaker 1: enormous suffering because of political or economic circumstances. Paul knew
[7:28] Speaker 1: about this too. He talks about going for days without
[7:31] Speaker 1: eating and so on. Peril or the sword. Did Paul
[7:37] Speaker 1: know about peril? Yeah. He talks about being shipwrecked. The sword? Yeah.
[7:42] Speaker 1: He eventually died by the sword. He was decapitated. He
[7:45] Speaker 1: was stoned and he was whipped. Yeah, I mean, Christians
[7:51] Speaker 1: from his time to our own face this kind of pain. Well,
[7:57] Speaker 1: we're tempted to say, what does it all mean? How
[8:01] Speaker 1: can God even exist? Doesn't all this separate us from
[8:06] Speaker 1: his love? Paul's answer is no. Now, why? Listen to him. No,
[8:13] Speaker 1: in all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly. How? How? Through
[8:19] Speaker 1: him who loved us. What does this possibly mean? It
[8:24] Speaker 1: means this. Jesus goes into all of it. Now, who's Jesus?
[8:32] Speaker 1: Not just another Jeremiah, another Isaiah, another great figure. No, no.
[8:36] Speaker 1: He's God from God, light from light, true God from
[8:38] Speaker 1: true God. He's the Son of God. And the Son
[8:42] Speaker 1: of God goes into anguish. Think of the cross now. Remember,
[8:50] Speaker 1: Paul says, I know one thing, Christ and him crucified.
[8:53] Speaker 1: Think of Christ on the cross. Anguish. Talk about peril.
[8:58] Speaker 1: Talk about famine. Talk about thirst. Talk about being rejected
[9:03] Speaker 1: by your own followers. Talk about being mocked. Talk about
[9:06] Speaker 1: being the victim of institutional injustice. Talk about the worst
[9:10] Speaker 1: kind of persecution possible. Well, the Son of God— ventured
[9:16] Speaker 1: into all of that, took all of that on. Now listen,
[9:20] Speaker 1: here's the hinge point. And in the resurrection, in the anastasis,
[9:28] Speaker 1: he conquered all of it, showed indeed that God's love
[9:34] Speaker 1: is more powerful than any of it. This is such
[9:38] Speaker 1: an important point, everyone. Yes, in the eschaton, all that
[9:43] Speaker 1: will go away. Every tear will be wiped away. That's
[9:47] Speaker 1: our great hope. These things don't go away while we're
[9:50] Speaker 1: in this world, but they do not have the final word.
[9:56] Speaker 1: And there is a love that is more powerful than
[10:00] Speaker 1: these things. Now again, in all these things, and Paul
[10:03] Speaker 1: experienced them all himself, we conquer overwhelmingly through him who
[10:09] Speaker 1: loved us. It's not by my own wit and power
[10:14] Speaker 1: and capacity that I conquer these things. No, no. It's
[10:19] Speaker 1: in Christ's victory, that we find victory. Now, he goes on,
[10:26] Speaker 1: I would say almost ecstatically here. It's Paul the poet.
[10:30] Speaker 1: Listen to him. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life,
[10:35] Speaker 1: nor angels nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things,
[10:40] Speaker 1: nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
[10:44] Speaker 1: will be able to separate us, listen, from the love
[10:47] Speaker 1: of God in Christ's Jesus our Lord, Christus Jesus Curios,
[10:54] Speaker 1: Mashiach Yeshua Adonai. What's he doing here with this list?
[11:01] Speaker 1: He's laying out, if I put it this way, the
[11:03] Speaker 1: parameters of his cosmology. We all have a cosmology, like
[11:07] Speaker 1: a basic view of the world. So we have a
[11:10] Speaker 1: kind of Einsteinian or maybe now even post-Einsteinian cosmology. There
[11:14] Speaker 1: used to be a Newtonian cosmology. Paul had his own.
[11:18] Speaker 1: He had kind of a vision of of what gave
[11:20] Speaker 1: structure to life. Now listen to it again. Neither death
[11:24] Speaker 1: nor life. All right. It's still, I mean, one of
[11:26] Speaker 1: the great realities of life, that we live and that
[11:30] Speaker 1: we die. Neither one can separate us from Christ. Nothing
[11:36] Speaker 1: in this life and neither our death can separate us. Why?
[11:40] Speaker 1: Because he's risen from the dead. He's the conqueror of
[11:44] Speaker 1: both life and death. Listen. Listen. nor angels nor principalities. Well,
[11:50] Speaker 1: here's part of Paul's cosmos, that above this visible world,
[11:55] Speaker 1: there's an invisible world of spiritual powers. Did Jesus do
[12:00] Speaker 1: battle with them? Uh-huh. Can't read the Gospels without that.
[12:05] Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense without them. In fact, before
[12:08] Speaker 1: he commences his public ministry, what does he do? He
[12:11] Speaker 1: battles with Satan. The dark, invisible powers that stand behind
[12:16] Speaker 1: the dark, visible powers of this world. Okay, that's the
[12:20] Speaker 1: biblical cosmology. Well, neither angels nor principalities can separate us. Why?
[12:26] Speaker 1: Because through the cross and resurrection, he defeated them. Nor
[12:31] Speaker 1: present things, nor future things. It's interesting. Here's the parameter
[12:34] Speaker 1: of time, right? There's the present, and then there's the
[12:38] Speaker 1: future that we don't see. We don't know for sure.
[12:41] Speaker 1: Can both separate us from Christ? Yeah. Because the present,
[12:45] Speaker 1: I can be so caught up in my obligations and
[12:48] Speaker 1: so on. Can the future? Yeah, because I live in
[12:50] Speaker 1: constant anxiety or fear about it. Paul's point is, in
[12:55] Speaker 1: the resurrection, he's the Lord of both the present and
[12:57] Speaker 1: the future. Don't worry about it. Behind all the preoccupations
[13:02] Speaker 1: of the present, well, there's Christ and his call. The future,
[13:05] Speaker 1: it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to him. He's
[13:08] Speaker 1: the Lord of both the present and the future. Height
[13:12] Speaker 1: nor depth. Interesting. Think of what's highest, what's deepest. In
[13:18] Speaker 1: Paul's cosmology, the heights would have been the realm of
[13:21] Speaker 1: the angels and the arena beyond the visible world. We've
[13:26] Speaker 1: got our own version of that. Think of the infinite
[13:28] Speaker 1: expanse of the universe going beyond this world. The depth,
[13:33] Speaker 1: you know, the toughest, darkest times of life. Well, is
[13:38] Speaker 1: he the Lord of the heights and of the depths? Yeah, yeah.
[13:44] Speaker 1: The resurrection shows he's Adonai, he's Kyrios, he's Lord of
[13:48] Speaker 1: all these things. Look how it ends. Nor any other
[13:51] Speaker 1: creature will be able to separate us from the love
[13:54] Speaker 1: of God. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing stands between us and
[14:01] Speaker 1: the victorious Christ who took upon himself all the anguish
[14:08] Speaker 1: and distress and persecution and darkness of the world and
[14:12] Speaker 1: conquered it in the resurrection. We don't have to be afraid.
[14:18] Speaker 1: We've been liberated. We found redemption. We found salvation. This, everybody,
[14:26] Speaker 1: is the good news. And God bless you.

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