# Give Your Gifts Away - Bishop Barron's Homily at the Good News Conference

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 1 Jul 2026, 10 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754563/give_your_gifts_away_bishop_barron_s_homily_at_the_good_news_conference.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: You know the Book of Wisdom.
[0:03] Speaker 2: It is in a way it's a it's a greed,
[0:06] Speaker 2: It's a book as Greek as it is a Hebrew,
[0:10] Speaker 2: with this keen sense of the orderliness of the cosmos.
[0:14] Speaker 1: And we heard it reflected in our in that beautiful psalm,
[0:17] Speaker 1: that the heavens proclaim the glory of God.
[0:21] Speaker 2: Many have argued that the modern sciences would never have
[0:25] Speaker 2: gotten off the ground unless scientists believed in some deep
[0:31] Speaker 2: level in the radical intelligibility of the world.
[0:34] Speaker 1: And again we take it so for granted, but think
[0:36] Speaker 1: about that. It's strange that we should assume.
[0:40] Speaker 2: That every nook and cranny of the universe, on the
[0:45] Speaker 2: grandest scale, on the on the smallest microscopic scale, is
[0:49] Speaker 2: marked by intelligibility ordered patterns.
[0:53] Speaker 1: Why should that be true. Wouldn't it be far more reasonable.
[0:56] Speaker 2: To assume the universe would just take on a sort
[0:59] Speaker 2: of chaotic things kind of left to themselves, tend to
[1:02] Speaker 2: fall back into chaos.
[1:05] Speaker 1: And yet everywhere we look there's signs of order.
[1:10] Speaker 2: Which is why it is supremely ironic that, especially in
[1:14] Speaker 2: the minds of a lot of our young.
[1:15] Speaker 1: People, it's the sciences that disprove religion.
[1:20] Speaker 2: Can I make bold to say, O contrere right, and
[1:26] Speaker 2: I really mean that. On the contrary, the sciences prove
[1:32] Speaker 2: the truth of religion, because how do you explain radical
[1:37] Speaker 2: universal intelligibility without appealing to some creative intelligence.
[1:44] Speaker 1: And mind you, every single one of the founders of
[1:47] Speaker 1: modern science.
[1:48] Speaker 2: Without exception, held this to be axiomatic, that they were
[1:53] Speaker 2: discerning the patterns that reflect the mind of God. I
[1:58] Speaker 2: found some traction actually apologetically with this approach young people
[2:04] Speaker 2: who revere the science, hasn't God bless them for it?
[2:07] Speaker 2: You know, science, that's the criterion of truth. Okay, fair enough,
[2:13] Speaker 2: But go all the way to the bottom of the
[2:15] Speaker 2: sciences and you find exactly what the Book of Wisdom
[2:18] Speaker 2: talks about, exactly what the Psalmist sings about. The heavens
[2:23] Speaker 2: proclaim the glory of God. You know, there's a related one.
[2:29] Speaker 2: I find also useful apologetically with young people. Young people
[2:35] Speaker 2: are passionate about certain moral themes, aren't they. You know,
[2:39] Speaker 2: they're against the abuse of women.
[2:42] Speaker 1: They're against slavery, they're against.
[2:44] Speaker 2: Racism and so on, and good for them, they're right
[2:47] Speaker 2: to be against those things. The question I ask is
[2:52] Speaker 2: where do you think these objective moral values come from,
[2:57] Speaker 2: because no.
[2:59] Speaker 1: Young person would say that's just my little private opinion,
[3:01] Speaker 1: and you know you were entitled to yours. No.
[3:03] Speaker 2: No, they're going to fight you, you know, tooth and
[3:06] Speaker 2: nail to say that sexism is wrong and racism is
[3:09] Speaker 2: wrong and slavery's wrong.
[3:11] Speaker 1: Sure they will, and they're right to do it.
[3:13] Speaker 2: But it begs that question, where do these objective moral
[3:17] Speaker 2: values come from?
[3:20] Speaker 1: In C. S.
[3:20] Speaker 2: Lewis's language, where do the laws of the moral life
[3:23] Speaker 2: come from?
[3:24] Speaker 1: If there's no law giver? So can I suggest that
[3:29] Speaker 1: the very things that often.
[3:31] Speaker 2: The skeptics of religion most revere are themselves paths toward
[3:37] Speaker 2: authentic religion? And I think the Book of Wisdom hints
[3:41] Speaker 2: at Then okay, how about that that was that's called
[3:44] Speaker 2: the fake Tomily on reading number one, they yeah, thank you,
[3:52] Speaker 2: thank you. Now you know the Gospel of Lucas so
[3:58] Speaker 2: rich and so wonderful, But you know the line that,
[4:01] Speaker 2: even though we've heard a thousand times, takes our breath away,
[4:05] Speaker 2: and it should simply this, whoever seeks to preserve his
[4:09] Speaker 2: life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.
[4:18] Speaker 1: You know, I mentioned the sciences and physics.
[4:21] Speaker 2: Physics is filled with that kind of anomalist language, isn't it.
[4:24] Speaker 2: If you get to the high points in physics, you know,
[4:28] Speaker 2: things get sort of topsy turvy, counter intuitive. So it
[4:33] Speaker 2: goes in the spiritual order. It's full of paradoxical claims
[4:38] Speaker 2: like this one again.
[4:41] Speaker 1: Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Well,
[4:44] Speaker 1: everybody seeks.
[4:45] Speaker 2: To preserve his life, right, It's the most fundamental instinct
[4:49] Speaker 2: behind our other instincts for wealth and power and pleasure.
[4:52] Speaker 1: All those things are meant to hang on to and
[4:54] Speaker 1: enhance my life.
[4:55] Speaker 2: Right, So the bottom line of human life is seeking
[4:59] Speaker 2: to hang on to what I've got.
[5:03] Speaker 1: But the Bible tells this.
[5:04] Speaker 2: Story over and over again, Old Testament and New. The
[5:09] Speaker 2: more you try that game, the less successful you will be.
[5:14] Speaker 2: The more you cling to it, the more you're gonna
[5:17] Speaker 2: lose it. The best example in the New Testament is
[5:21] Speaker 2: the prodigal Son's story.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Right, Father, give me my share of the inheritance coming
[5:29] Speaker 1: to me.
[5:30] Speaker 2: In one sentence, he manages to use the word me
[5:33] Speaker 2: three times, right me, mine, give me, give me, give
[5:36] Speaker 2: it to me.
[5:36] Speaker 1: Now. Well, this is the all of us in regard
[5:39] Speaker 1: to God. Give me that I might hang on to it.
[5:44] Speaker 2: What happens, of course, is he fritters it all away
[5:46] Speaker 2: very quickly and ends up destitute.
[5:50] Speaker 1: Now here's the spiritual physics.
[5:52] Speaker 2: Here's exactly why grace only exists in gift form.
[6:01] Speaker 1: That's what grace means. God sia.
[6:02] Speaker 2: It's a gift, right, whatever we have, whatever exists in
[6:08] Speaker 2: the world, is a grace.
[6:09] Speaker 1: Because it comes from God's love.
[6:11] Speaker 2: So whatever exists exists in gift form. Therefore, if you
[6:16] Speaker 2: want to hang on to it, you've got to give
[6:20] Speaker 2: it away.
[6:23] Speaker 1: And you'll find as.
[6:24] Speaker 2: You give it away, you get more. And when you
[6:28] Speaker 2: get more, you give that away and you get more.
[6:32] Speaker 2: And what happens is now you live in this kind
[6:34] Speaker 2: of loop of grace.
[6:36] Speaker 1: You live on the edge, you live on the fly.
[6:39] Speaker 2: That's why you know it's to me, it's so ironic
[6:41] Speaker 2: in the eyes of the world. Oh, religion is kind
[6:43] Speaker 2: of this nerdy you know, it's just for these oh
[6:45] Speaker 2: fuddy duddy type people.
[6:47] Speaker 1: And oh, we in living in Las Vegas. We're living
[6:49] Speaker 1: on the edge. No they're not.
[6:52] Speaker 2: They're living in the most tiresomely boring manner you can imagine.
[6:56] Speaker 2: I mean that we're the ones. If we take this
[6:59] Speaker 2: language seriously, who are living on the edge.
[7:02] Speaker 1: Think of the.
[7:03] Speaker 2: Great saints and our saint for today Elizabeth. I love
[7:06] Speaker 2: her story.
[7:07] Speaker 1: You know this great.
[7:09] Speaker 2: Queenlye figure, you know this high royal regal figure who
[7:13] Speaker 2: gives it away. She gives it away to serve the poor.
[7:19] Speaker 2: When we give grace away, we get more grace. And
[7:22] Speaker 2: then we give that away and we get more grace.
[7:25] Speaker 2: And we live in that edgy space, risking it all, risking.
[7:31] Speaker 1: It from moment to moment. What do I know.
[7:34] Speaker 2: I don't quite know what's going to come next, But
[7:36] Speaker 2: whatever I have I give.
[7:39] Speaker 1: If you try to hang on to a gift, what happens?
[7:42] Speaker 2: It stops being a gift and you lose it. It's
[7:47] Speaker 2: like the you know those little dandelion things, little cottonwood
[7:52] Speaker 2: seeds that float around, and if in the summertime, and
[7:55] Speaker 2: if you want to grab one of those, rather you
[7:59] Speaker 2: want to get one of those, what shouldn't you do
[8:01] Speaker 2: If you try to grab it? You just push it
[8:04] Speaker 2: away right Only when you sort of follow it on
[8:08] Speaker 2: its own rhythm and you wait for it to fall
[8:11] Speaker 2: into your hand. Only then will you get it. Well,
[8:15] Speaker 2: Grace is a bit like that. If I try to
[8:18] Speaker 2: grasp at it, I will if so facto.
[8:20] Speaker 1: Push it away. So again, this is spiritual physics. Whoever
[8:26] Speaker 1: seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Period. Whoever
[8:33] Speaker 1: loses it will save it.
[8:36] Speaker 2: That means whoever gives it away will keep it, will
[8:40] Speaker 2: keep real life.
[8:43] Speaker 1: My great mentor of Cardinal George, had that wonderful life.
[8:45] Speaker 1: He was so quotable. Cardinal George.
[8:47] Speaker 2: You know, the only things that we will have in
[8:50] Speaker 2: heaven are those things that we gave away on earth.
[8:53] Speaker 1: That was his way of stating this principle. It's good
[8:56] Speaker 1: in that the only things.
[8:57] Speaker 2: Will have in heaven are the things that we gave
[9:00] Speaker 2: away on earth, because heaven is the place of sheer grace,
[9:04] Speaker 2: of sheer love. So the more you get in the
[9:07] Speaker 2: habit of giving away what you have, the more you
[9:10] Speaker 2: live in the loop of grace, the more you start
[9:13] Speaker 2: anticipating life in heaven.
[9:16] Speaker 1: That was Elizabeth of Hungary. That's her great lesson. So
[9:20] Speaker 1: how about those two things. I don't know, how do
[9:22] Speaker 1: we read them together? Now? If I were planning this homily,
[9:24] Speaker 1: say what I would have done?
[9:26] Speaker 2: I would have thought, okay, there's reading one reading too
[9:28] Speaker 2: is I don't really have a good connection.
[9:31] Speaker 1: I'll let you think about that.
[9:35] Speaker 2: But apolog apologetics and the heavens proclaiming the glory of
[9:39] Speaker 2: God and then gosh, the glory of God, maybe that's it.
[9:42] Speaker 1: What's what's the glory of God? It is reflected in
[9:44] Speaker 1: the heavens, that's true. They're grace too. The planet Saturn,
[9:48] Speaker 1: you know, Jupiter, that's grace or a gift. These things are.
[9:51] Speaker 2: And that's where the glory of God has made manifest
[9:54] Speaker 2: when we participate in that loop of grace and allow
[9:57] Speaker 2: the divine life to come more and more to life
[10:01] Speaker 2: in us.
[10:13] Speaker 1: H

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