# When Gods Ways Are Confusing - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 30 Jun 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72733586/when_gods_ways_are_confusing_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you, Frience. Today, I want to do
[0:02] Speaker 1: something I don't usually.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Do, which is to preach on the second Reading. During
[0:06] Speaker 2: these last several weeks, we've been reading from Paul's Letter
[0:10] Speaker 2: to the Romans, and you know, maybe in another year
[0:14] Speaker 2: I could just focus on this magnificent text. Paul to
[0:18] Speaker 2: the Romans is one of the great texts in our
[0:21] Speaker 2: whole tradition. Paul is the first theologian. He's the first
[0:26] Speaker 2: person really to think the Christian thing through in a
[0:29] Speaker 2: very disciplined way. Because of course all his letters pre
[0:32] Speaker 2: date the Gospels Romans, all written sometime maybe in the
[0:37] Speaker 2: late fifties of the first century. It's Paul's longest and
[0:42] Speaker 2: most systematic statement of Christian faith. Almost every major theme
[0:46] Speaker 2: in theology is in Romans. Whitehead said that all the
[0:50] Speaker 2: philosophy is a footnote to Plato. You could say all
[0:54] Speaker 2: of Christian theology is a footnote to Paul. And Paul
[0:57] Speaker 2: is at his fullest express in the Letter to the Romans.
[1:02] Speaker 2: So you get the impression. I think it's an important letter. Well,
[1:05] Speaker 2: today we have a very interesting, famous passage and I'm
[1:08] Speaker 2: just going to read it to you very brief. Oh
[1:12] Speaker 2: the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the
[1:15] Speaker 2: knowledge of God. How inscrutable are his judgments, how unsearchable
[1:21] Speaker 2: his ways?
[1:23] Speaker 1: You probably heard that passage.
[1:25] Speaker 2: It comes at the culmination of a section of Romans
[1:28] Speaker 2: Romans chapters nine through eleven, where Paul is talking about
[1:32] Speaker 2: the problem of Israel and the Church. And I'm not
[1:35] Speaker 2: going to go into that. That's not my point today,
[1:37] Speaker 2: but it's a famously thorny problem. So Israel is the
[1:41] Speaker 2: chosen people. Paul is an Israelite, and he recognizes Jesus
[1:46] Speaker 2: as the Messiah, He's the fulfillment of Israel, and he
[1:49] Speaker 2: makes that announcement and some people accept it, but to
[1:52] Speaker 2: be frank, most of Israel doesn't accept his message. So
[1:57] Speaker 2: what's the relationship between the majority of Israelites who have
[2:01] Speaker 2: rejected the message and those few Israelites and Gentiles who've
[2:06] Speaker 2: accepted it.
[2:07] Speaker 1: How do you think together?
[2:09] Speaker 2: Israel the chosen people, but Christ the fulfillment of Israel, etc.
[2:14] Speaker 2: As I say, I'm not going to go into that.
[2:15] Speaker 2: Take a look at Romans nine to eleven for the details.
[2:18] Speaker 2: The point is it culminates with this famous line when
[2:22] Speaker 2: Paul is trying to search through this mystery this confounding problem,
[2:27] Speaker 2: and he says, the depth of the riches and the
[2:31] Speaker 2: wisdom and the knowledge of God, how inscrutable are his judgments,
[2:36] Speaker 2: how unsearchable his ways? You know, I do a lot
[2:40] Speaker 2: of debate and dialogue with non believers. Very often when
[2:45] Speaker 2: agnostics and atheists attack the faith, it's along the lines of,
[2:51] Speaker 2: you know, how could and all knowing and all good
[2:55] Speaker 2: God allow now fill in the blank. You know the
[2:58] Speaker 2: suffering of children are a life natural catastrophes, or allow
[3:02] Speaker 2: animals to suffer the way they do, allow leukemia in
[3:06] Speaker 2: a five year old? You know, these are just so anomalous.
[3:10] Speaker 2: How would you possibly believe that all knowing, all good
[3:14] Speaker 2: God could allow these things? Much of the objection hinges
[3:18] Speaker 2: upon the puzzle, the puzzle that is proposed by the
[3:24] Speaker 2: existence of God. Well, see here's a classic answer from
[3:28] Speaker 2: within the heart of our tradition. I admit it, Paul says,
[3:33] Speaker 2: I admit it. God's ways are confounding to us. How
[3:38] Speaker 2: the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the
[3:40] Speaker 2: knowledge of God, How inscrutable his judgments, how unsearchable his ways.
[3:46] Speaker 2: So the atheist or the agnostic might say, well, isn't
[3:49] Speaker 2: that neat. Isn't that an easy way out of the problem.
[3:52] Speaker 2: We just say, oh, it's a great mystery. Well not really.
[3:58] Speaker 2: We have to realize whom we're dealing with and whom
[4:02] Speaker 2: we're talking about when we deal with and talk about God.
[4:08] Speaker 2: As I said many times before, God is not something
[4:13] Speaker 2: in the world. So I'm looking around this studio or
[4:17] Speaker 2: I'm recording these words, I can point to various objects
[4:20] Speaker 2: and people. I can go outside and point to various activities,
[4:24] Speaker 2: and I can read the paper about certain events. I
[4:27] Speaker 2: can consult the scientists and they tell me about things
[4:30] Speaker 2: happening within the cosmos. Okay, those are all objects and
[4:35] Speaker 2: events and experiences within the world. If I use philosophical language,
[4:41] Speaker 2: those are all categorical things.
[4:43] Speaker 1: They can be categorized.
[4:46] Speaker 2: I can say, oh, yeah, that's this type of thing,
[4:48] Speaker 2: and that's something else.
[4:49] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's.
[4:50] Speaker 2: Where that thing ends and where that thing begins. These
[4:54] Speaker 2: are all definable.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Even though on the.
[4:58] Speaker 2: Planet Jupiter, well yes, is man object. But I can
[5:01] Speaker 2: define it. I can set the limits to it. I
[5:03] Speaker 2: can say, well, yeah, that's Jupiter, but that's Saturn over there.
[5:07] Speaker 1: There's that person and here's this person.
[5:09] Speaker 2: They're separate they're definable, they're categorizable.
[5:15] Speaker 1: Then there's God, the.
[5:18] Speaker 2: Creator of all things, the reason why there's something rather
[5:23] Speaker 2: than nothing, the explanation for the universe itself is not
[5:27] Speaker 2: ingredient in the universe. Does that make sense? Is not
[5:31] Speaker 2: a thing among others within the universe. I think very
[5:35] Speaker 2: often the atheist agnostics make that fundamental error. They think
[5:38] Speaker 2: of God as some big object. Some say it's there,
[5:41] Speaker 2: some say it's not. Let's go find out. But that's
[5:44] Speaker 2: what God is not. Therefore, God, in our great tradition
[5:50] Speaker 2: is described as being totalitai aliitaarr. That means not just other,
[5:56] Speaker 2: like Jupiter is other than Saturn. God is tali te
[6:00] Speaker 2: ali tear. That means he's he's totally other. God can't
[6:05] Speaker 2: be compared to anything within the world. It's not as though, well,
[6:11] Speaker 2: here's this thing and then there's God over there. Well,
[6:13] Speaker 2: then I could define God. Even that word definition de
[6:17] Speaker 2: fiene finis in Latin means a limit. To define something
[6:23] Speaker 2: is to set a limit to it. God can't be defined.
[6:28] Speaker 2: God can't be delimited. Therefore, he can't be contrasted with
[6:32] Speaker 2: or compared with anything in the world. Now, start reading
[6:37] Speaker 2: the mystics on this. This means that God can't be seen.
[6:43] Speaker 2: Don't think of that as well. There's some visible things
[6:45] Speaker 2: folt around them. There's some invisible things like you know,
[6:47] Speaker 2: atoms and all that. But no, no, God is in
[6:50] Speaker 2: principle invisible. He can never come within the scope of
[6:56] Speaker 2: my of my senses, or of my my mind. When
[7:02] Speaker 2: I move into the reality of God, I'm going to
[7:05] Speaker 2: that place.
[7:06] Speaker 1: I'll quote you two here.
[7:07] Speaker 2: But they're relying on the mystics where the streets have
[7:11] Speaker 2: no names. Right, If the streets have names, I kind
[7:14] Speaker 2: of know where I'm going. Think when you get in
[7:15] Speaker 2: your car, we all do it now. Just put your
[7:17] Speaker 2: address in the GPS and it follows the route that
[7:20] Speaker 2: knows the names of the streets, and you get where
[7:22] Speaker 2: you're gonna go.
[7:23] Speaker 1: But see, when you're dealing with God, who's not a thing.
[7:25] Speaker 2: In the world, you're going into a place where the
[7:28] Speaker 2: streets have no name. That's why there's that great text
[7:33] Speaker 2: in our mystical tradition called the Cloud of Unknowing.
[7:38] Speaker 1: Beautiful, isn't it.
[7:40] Speaker 2: Think of the cloud on Mount Sinai, the cloud that
[7:42] Speaker 2: signals the presence of God. It's a cloud of unknowing.
[7:46] Speaker 2: I can't see. I don't know where I'm going. I
[7:49] Speaker 2: can't get my bearings the depth of the riches and
[7:56] Speaker 2: the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How inscrutable are
[7:59] Speaker 2: his judgments, how unsearchable his ways?
[8:02] Speaker 1: Why is God doing what God is doing? I don't know.
[8:07] Speaker 1: And that's not a cop out answer. You see my point.
[8:10] Speaker 2: That's the only answer I can coherently give given the
[8:14] Speaker 2: nature of God. Now let me take it a step further.
[8:17] Speaker 2: So that's the that's the the undefinable quality of God.
[8:22] Speaker 2: But God is also a person. God's not some some
[8:30] Speaker 2: dumb you know, object or force. God is a person.
[8:34] Speaker 2: I don't know about you. But persons are always mysterious.
[8:39] Speaker 2: And I'm talking here about human persons. You know, if
[8:42] Speaker 2: you're you meet somebody and you can look at them
[8:45] Speaker 2: and size them up, and your senses tell you a
[8:47] Speaker 2: lot of things about them. You can read about them,
[8:49] Speaker 2: you can google them and find out information about them.
[8:52] Speaker 1: That's all true.
[8:55] Speaker 2: But a person always remains elusive and mysterious because the
[9:01] Speaker 2: person has got a hidden, secret identity that is apparent
[9:07] Speaker 2: to you only when the person reveals it. An interesting
[9:12] Speaker 2: that married couples married for forty fifty years will say,
[9:17] Speaker 2: you know, my husband and my wife is now more
[9:21] Speaker 2: mysterious to me than she was before. That makes perfect
[9:24] Speaker 2: sense to me, perfect sense that the more you delve
[9:28] Speaker 2: into a human person, the stranger, more elusive and mysterious
[9:32] Speaker 2: that person becomes. Now, combine these two things, God is
[9:40] Speaker 2: an infinite, undefinable person. Therefore, how inscrutable his judgments, how
[9:51] Speaker 2: unsearchable his ways. Stay with that last phrase for a second.
[9:55] Speaker 2: Think of a little child in relation to his parents,
[9:59] Speaker 2: a litt three or four year ol. And you know,
[10:01] Speaker 2: the three or four year old understands my parents love me.
[10:05] Speaker 2: But man, do they do strange, inscrutable things, forcing me
[10:10] Speaker 2: to go to bed when I don't want to, telling
[10:12] Speaker 2: me I can't do this or that, and that's.
[10:14] Speaker 1: The very thing I want.
[10:16] Speaker 2: But when I'm hungry for something and they tell me no,
[10:18] Speaker 2: I can't have it, they take me to this guy
[10:21] Speaker 2: wearing a white coat and he sticks needles in me, and.
[10:24] Speaker 1: I don't know what they're doing.
[10:26] Speaker 2: If a child could be given the vocabulary of Saint Paul,
[10:30] Speaker 2: he would say, Visa Villa's parents, how inscrutable they are,
[10:35] Speaker 2: how unsearchable they're judgments?
[10:38] Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what they're doing.
[10:42] Speaker 2: Somehow, I know of these two people love me, But
[10:46] Speaker 2: boy do they do strange things to express it.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Well, Obviously, the little kid doesn't have.
[10:53] Speaker 2: The capaciousness of mind to take in what his parents understand.
[10:57] Speaker 2: Why they don't give him candy before, why they make
[11:00] Speaker 2: him go to bed, why they bring him to a
[11:02] Speaker 2: doctor who gives them shots, et cetera. Parents get it,
[11:05] Speaker 2: but the child and principle can't get it. Now, take that, everybody,
[11:11] Speaker 2: and lift it to the infinite degree. The difference between
[11:17] Speaker 2: our consciousness and God's consciousness, the difference between us and
[11:23] Speaker 2: this infinite, indefinable person.
[11:27] Speaker 1: Who is gone.
[11:30] Speaker 2: Is it puzzling that his judgments seem pretty strange and
[11:35] Speaker 2: inscrutable to us?
[11:37] Speaker 1: How could God allow such a thing to happen to me?
[11:40] Speaker 1: And we've all experienced it, I get it. Any religious person.
[11:44] Speaker 1: In fact, the more religious you are, the more you're
[11:47] Speaker 1: going to feel this. How could God allow now fill
[11:51] Speaker 1: in the blank.
[11:54] Speaker 2: Why do we think for a second that we should
[11:57] Speaker 2: be able fully to understand the judgment of God?
[12:02] Speaker 1: No?
[12:02] Speaker 2: No, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and
[12:05] Speaker 2: the knowledge of God.
[12:08] Speaker 1: You say, okay, well, then where am I left? You
[12:11] Speaker 1: know where you're left.
[12:12] Speaker 2: I think morale left is in the attitude of that child,
[12:16] Speaker 2: viza VIA's parents. I know these people love me. I
[12:21] Speaker 2: know that at some deep and stinctual level. But I
[12:26] Speaker 2: don't understand why they do everything they do. But yet
[12:32] Speaker 2: I will trust. Yet, I will trust and see. Now
[12:38] Speaker 2: we come, everybody, and I'll close with this, we come
[12:40] Speaker 2: to the central teaching of Saint Paul, which is.
[12:44] Speaker 1: What he calls faith.
[12:46] Speaker 2: But see faith, don't think of it propositionally first of all,
[12:50] Speaker 2: as accepting certain propositions. Think of faith as meaning this
[12:55] Speaker 2: existential trust. I'm justified, Paul says, by faith, by this
[13:04] Speaker 2: trust in God, whose ways and judgments I know remain
[13:10] Speaker 2: inscrutable to me. We are relating to an infinite, indefinable person.
[13:19] Speaker 1: Who loves us.
[13:21] Speaker 2: Therefore in him we place our trust. And God bless you.

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