# Do Not Fear God's With You Always - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermons

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 6 Aug 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73269757/do_not_fear.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Finitude in awareness is anxiety. When I become aware of
[0:06] Speaker 1: my finitude, I become afraid. Right now, what's the answer existentialism,
[0:15] Speaker 1: which Tillot Knew very well said, get used to it.
[0:19] Speaker 1: That's the way it is, right, What's the answer to
[0:23] Speaker 1: the Bible? Be not afraid?
[0:33] Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Batt,
[0:36] Speaker 2: the senior content director here at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.
[0:40] Speaker 2: Today we're going to look back and discuss the most
[0:43] Speaker 2: searched Bible verse of twenty twenty and I'm guessing it's
[0:47] Speaker 2: not what you expect. We're also going to look at
[0:49] Speaker 2: how Jesus helps us respond to our fears and how
[0:53] Speaker 2: to conquer some of the fears many of us share.
[0:55] Speaker 2: Moving into the new year in twenty twenty one with
[0:59] Speaker 2: a lot of chaos, confusion, and lack of clarity with
[1:02] Speaker 2: the COVID virus and many other problems we're struggling with
[1:06] Speaker 2: before we get there, Bishop Baron, good to see you,
[1:08] Speaker 2: and welcome to this second video here in the new
[1:11] Speaker 2: year of twenty twenty one.
[1:12] Speaker 1: Hey Brandon, good to see you.
[1:13] Speaker 2: As always, I sent you this website result survey of
[1:19] Speaker 2: a you version Bible App study. So you version is
[1:23] Speaker 2: the most popular Bible app in the world. I think
[1:25] Speaker 2: they're on I don't know, one hundred million phones around
[1:28] Speaker 2: the world, and they track all sorts of analytics of
[1:31] Speaker 2: what Bible versus people are reading, what they're searching, what
[1:34] Speaker 2: they're highlighting. Notably, they saw an increase by eighty percent
[1:39] Speaker 2: in twenty twenty with nearly six hundred million worldwide user's views.
[1:45] Speaker 2: I think it is so, first of all, before we
[1:48] Speaker 2: get into the most popular versus, it seems like more
[1:51] Speaker 2: people are searching the Bible than ever before, at least online.
[1:56] Speaker 2: What do you make of that? Is that I'm assuming
[1:58] Speaker 2: an exciting discovery for cal looks like us.
[2:00] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. And you know, again,
[2:02] Speaker 1: the Internet makes this stuff accessible in a way it
[2:05] Speaker 1: wasn't before. So I'm delighted to hear that. Actually, And
[2:09] Speaker 1: if it took in some ways the crisis of twenty
[2:11] Speaker 1: twenty to bring people back to the scripture, well, okay,
[2:15] Speaker 1: it's often gone that way in history, hasn't it. During
[2:18] Speaker 1: times of difficulty, people turn to the Word of God. So,
[2:22] Speaker 1: you know, three cheers for the Internet and for social
[2:24] Speaker 1: media in that way.
[2:27] Speaker 2: I think in most years the most popular verse on
[2:29] Speaker 2: you version is either John three point sixteen for God
[2:32] Speaker 2: so love the world gave his only begotten son, or
[2:35] Speaker 2: I think we did an episode last year covering last
[2:38] Speaker 2: year's most popular verse, which was the one from Jeremiah
[2:41] Speaker 2: where it says, you know, God's got plans for you
[2:43] Speaker 2: to prosper and succeed and all that. But this year
[2:47] Speaker 2: there was an unexpected contender. The number one most read
[2:51] Speaker 2: Bible verse on you version in twenty twenty was Isaiah
[2:55] Speaker 2: forty one to ten. I'm going to read it for you,
[2:58] Speaker 2: So do not for I am with you. Do not
[3:02] Speaker 2: be dismayed. For I am your God. I will strengthen
[3:06] Speaker 2: you and help you. I will uphold you with my
[3:08] Speaker 2: righteous right hand. That verse was not only the most
[3:12] Speaker 2: searched verse of twenty twenty, but the most read and
[3:15] Speaker 2: the most bookmarked. People wanted to come back to it
[3:18] Speaker 2: again and again. What do you think about that verse
[3:20] Speaker 2: being number one? Are you surprised?
[3:22] Speaker 1: No? I mean, twenty twenty was a terrible year, wasn't it,
[3:25] Speaker 1: and stirred up a lot of our anxieties. You know,
[3:28] Speaker 1: the psychologists in the twentieth century talked about existential anxiety.
[3:32] Speaker 1: So I might be afraid of something right in front
[3:35] Speaker 1: of me, there's a particular threat. But then underneath all
[3:39] Speaker 1: the particular threats, and often precipitated by a number of
[3:43] Speaker 1: particular threats, there's this deep level fear, this existential anxiety,
[3:49] Speaker 1: which is born of our finitude. And a year like
[3:53] Speaker 1: twenty twenty, when I mean, let's face it, I mean
[3:55] Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are dying from
[3:59] Speaker 1: this disease. All of us are locked in, we can't
[4:03] Speaker 1: see each other. That's going to stir up some deep
[4:06] Speaker 1: level fears. And you could argue, Brandon, that the Bible
[4:11] Speaker 1: is a response to fear, you know, perfect love, and
[4:17] Speaker 1: that's what God is cast out. Not hate, says the Bible,
[4:22] Speaker 1: but fear. And so in some ways that's the primordial
[4:25] Speaker 1: struggle between fear and love. So I'm not surprised a
[4:30] Speaker 1: that twenty twenty kicked up that fear and that b
[4:35] Speaker 1: people turn to the Bible to find an answer precisely
[4:39] Speaker 1: to this spiritual problem.
[4:41] Speaker 2: So those first few words of the Isaiah verse do
[4:44] Speaker 2: not fear for us Catholics. They obviously call to mind
[4:48] Speaker 2: the great Pope Saint John Paul the Second, who made
[4:50] Speaker 2: that one of his major themes and commendations of his papacy.
[4:55] Speaker 2: Can you talk about what these words meant for John
[4:58] Speaker 2: Paul and why you think he considered them so important.
[5:01] Speaker 1: We know it's amazing about John Paul. There is you
[5:04] Speaker 1: could say, well, yeah, I mean, any Christian will claim
[5:06] Speaker 1: a phrase like, you know, do not be afraid, and
[5:09] Speaker 1: you know that's a nice, pious thing to say. But
[5:11] Speaker 1: when you remember that young Carl Voytiwa endured first the
[5:17] Speaker 1: horrific oppression of the Nazis. So his hometown of Krako
[5:22] Speaker 1: is overwhelmed, the country is held captive, people being murdered
[5:29] Speaker 1: right and left. The Auschwitz concentration camp is about a
[5:33] Speaker 1: thirty five minute drive from where John Paul the Second
[5:36] Speaker 1: lived at the time. Then, when the Nazis are are finished,
[5:42] Speaker 1: we then have the Communists comment with maybe a slightly
[5:46] Speaker 1: less oppressive form of dictatorship murderous regime. John Paul the Second,
[5:53] Speaker 1: as a young man, experienced the very worst of humanity,
[5:58] Speaker 1: and that's not an exact. The twentieth century arguably the
[6:02] Speaker 1: worst on record in terms of destructiveness, moral collapse, and
[6:08] Speaker 1: John Paul the Second lived in Poland, which is right
[6:12] Speaker 1: where the pincer movement of these two deeply dysfunctional ideologies
[6:18] Speaker 1: Nazism from the west, Commism from the east met And
[6:22] Speaker 1: so here's someone coming of age in that Maelstrom. And
[6:27] Speaker 1: yet when he comes of age and he's elected pope,
[6:32] Speaker 1: he can say, do not be afraid. I mean, if
[6:36] Speaker 1: anyone in the twentieth century had a right to say
[6:39] Speaker 1: be afraid, it would have been Karl Voit twa right like, look,
[6:44] Speaker 1: everybody take the route of Jean Paul Sartre, or of
[6:48] Speaker 1: Albert Camu or of you know, the existentialists, and yeah,
[6:53] Speaker 1: life is absurd, and of course we're afraid all the time.
[6:57] Speaker 1: That he of all people could say do not be
[7:00] Speaker 1: afraid witnesses two his Christian faith, because finally, it's only
[7:08] Speaker 1: Christianity which proclaims God's own journey into the heart of
[7:15] Speaker 1: what frightens us the most. It's only that that gives
[7:19] Speaker 1: us the capacity to say, do not be afraid, even
[7:23] Speaker 1: in the face of the worst of suffering. So that
[7:26] Speaker 1: makes John Paul a very intriguing figure in the twentieth century.
[7:31] Speaker 2: When you read the Old Testament, you'll see reiterated again
[7:34] Speaker 2: and again don't be afraid, have no fear, don't worry,
[7:37] Speaker 2: don't be anxious. And then at sort of the pivotal
[7:41] Speaker 2: hinge between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, when
[7:43] Speaker 2: the angel Gabriel comes to Mary, he tells her do
[7:46] Speaker 2: not be afraid, and then we see Jesus picking up
[7:49] Speaker 2: that thread throughout the rest of the New Testament. Talk
[7:52] Speaker 2: about why this is so central to Salvation history. Why
[7:57] Speaker 2: do you think God keeps having to remind his people
[8:00] Speaker 2: don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid.
[8:03] Speaker 1: Well, I'll go back to the Protestant theologian Paul Tillic,
[8:06] Speaker 1: whom I studied when I was doing my doctoral work
[8:08] Speaker 1: quite a bit. Tillic who came of age in the
[8:13] Speaker 1: First World War, so he was a chaplain during World
[8:17] Speaker 1: War One. He endured the worst of that horrific war.
[8:22] Speaker 1: So the overture of the great demonic opera that was
[8:27] Speaker 1: much of the twentieth century was the First World War. Right,
[8:30] Speaker 1: it was a weekend's work in World War One to
[8:33] Speaker 1: kill fifty or sixty thousand people. Paul Tillic was there
[8:38] Speaker 1: as a chaplain trying to proclaim the Christian gospel in
[8:42] Speaker 1: that setting. He reflects on presiding over a mass burial
[8:47] Speaker 1: of thousands of these young man who've been killed. So Tillic,
[8:51] Speaker 1: who went through all of that and then tried to
[8:54] Speaker 1: make sense of Christianity in the wake of it. Well,
[8:57] Speaker 1: one of his one liners, and I come back to
[8:59] Speaker 1: it a lot. Tillig said, finitude in awareness is anxiety.
[9:07] Speaker 1: It's an interesting line, those three beats. Finitude in awareness
[9:13] Speaker 1: is anxiety. In other words, to be finite and to
[9:16] Speaker 1: know it is to be afraid. So Tillic says, for example,
[9:21] Speaker 1: there are four great equalities or marks of finitude, time, space, causality,
[9:28] Speaker 1: and substance. I'll just say something. I know that sounds
[9:30] Speaker 1: very abstract. They're not, though. As a finite person, I
[9:34] Speaker 1: live in time. You live in time, we all do.
[9:39] Speaker 1: Does that produce anxiety? Yes? Because where's time going? Was
[9:44] Speaker 1: this going in one direction? Right? I'm not getting any younger,
[9:47] Speaker 1: as we say, I'm getting older. Time is always moving
[9:51] Speaker 1: forward toward what and he would have been following Heidegger
[9:54] Speaker 1: here zion zoom todas as Heideger said, being toward death
[9:59] Speaker 1: because we in time, we're heading toward death and there's
[10:04] Speaker 1: nothing we can do to stop it right. Therefore, to
[10:07] Speaker 1: live in time is to live in anxiety. Secondly, till
[10:11] Speaker 1: It says, we live in space. We're spatial beings. We
[10:14] Speaker 1: live in a particular place. Does that produce anxiety? Yes?
[10:19] Speaker 1: And now I can witness to this, having moved out
[10:21] Speaker 1: to California a few years ago. What did I experience here? Well,
[10:25] Speaker 1: that terrible Thomas fire. As this fire was kept just
[10:29] Speaker 1: was sweeping across the California hillsides until it came right
[10:33] Speaker 1: to my house, and twice I was chased out of
[10:37] Speaker 1: my space, right which was threatened by these flames. Just
[10:43] Speaker 1: a few weeks after that, a great rainstorm came and
[10:48] Speaker 1: this mud slide swept twenty five people in Monticito, ten
[10:51] Speaker 1: minutes from my house to their death. Space is always threatened,
[10:57] Speaker 1: It's always in danger. Talk to anyone who's been through
[11:00] Speaker 1: an earthquake what that's like. When what you take to
[11:03] Speaker 1: be terra firma right, the reliable earth suddenly shakes to
[11:10] Speaker 1: be spatial is to be afraid. Thirdly, Tillik says, to
[11:16] Speaker 1: be finite is to be caused. Now we talk a
[11:21] Speaker 1: lot Brandon about the argument from contingency right, that means
[11:25] Speaker 1: things exist, but don't have to exist. Therefore, they've been
[11:27] Speaker 1: brought into being by something extrinsic to themselves. Well, that's
[11:31] Speaker 1: a very objective, abstract way to talk about it. But
[11:34] Speaker 1: Tillik says, what does it feel like to be contingent
[11:40] Speaker 1: the fact that my being? Well, it was contingent upon
[11:44] Speaker 1: my parents. It's contingent right now upon the room I'm
[11:48] Speaker 1: in here and it's temperature. It's contingent upon the food
[11:51] Speaker 1: that I ate just a few hours ago. If food
[11:53] Speaker 1: was taken away, I die. It's contingent upon the drink
[11:57] Speaker 1: that I can take in. It's contingent upon the oxygen
[12:00] Speaker 1: in the atmosphere. The point is to live as a
[12:04] Speaker 1: caused thing, is to live in fear because any of
[12:09] Speaker 1: those things could be taken away, and indeed, one day
[12:12] Speaker 1: they will be taken away, right when the health of
[12:14] Speaker 1: my body deteriorates. Finally, Tillick says, as a finite being,
[12:21] Speaker 1: I'm a substance. I'm not the sheer act of being itself.
[12:27] Speaker 1: That's what God has. I'm a substance. I'm a thing.
[12:30] Speaker 1: I'm a particular thing, which means, as Aristotle new, I
[12:34] Speaker 1: can undergo substantial change. That means I can be eliminated.
[12:39] Speaker 1: I can be destroyed, right like any substance. The camera
[12:44] Speaker 1: I'm speaking to you're on the screen in front of me. Here,
[12:47] Speaker 1: I not that. With a hammer, I can destroy it.
[12:49] Speaker 1: Any substance can be destroyed. A planet will be destroyed
[12:54] Speaker 1: someday when the sun envelops it, et cetera. Time, space, causality, substance.
[12:59] Speaker 1: Fitude in awareness is anxiety. When I become aware of
[13:05] Speaker 1: my finitude, I become afraid. Right now, what's the answer existentialism?
[13:14] Speaker 1: Which Tillik knew very well said, get used to it.
[13:19] Speaker 1: That's the way it is, right. What's the answer of
[13:23] Speaker 1: the Bible? Be not afraid? How come? Because the Bible
[13:29] Speaker 1: orders us beyond our finitude to a reality, namely God,
[13:37] Speaker 1: who transcends these limitations. Now, mind you, how do we
[13:41] Speaker 1: name God? Well, he's not in time, He's eternal. He's
[13:44] Speaker 1: outside of time. God's not in space. God is ubiquitous.
[13:49] Speaker 1: We say he's omnipresent. God is not contingent upon causes
[13:54] Speaker 1: outside of himself. And God is not a substance. God
[13:58] Speaker 1: is a sheer act of being itself. I see what's interesting, Brandon,
[14:01] Speaker 1: what Tillic has done here? I think it's very clever.
[14:04] Speaker 1: He's taken the classical philosophical language we use about God
[14:09] Speaker 1: and he's shown the spiritual power of it. You say, well,
[14:13] Speaker 1: oh yeah, God's eternal. Okay, I guess so what? Well,
[14:16] Speaker 1: the so what is because I can't save myself. I'm
[14:21] Speaker 1: a temporal reality. And listen, I can't reach out to
[14:25] Speaker 1: you because you're a temporal reality too. I can't reach
[14:29] Speaker 1: out to anybody in this world because they're all in
[14:32] Speaker 1: time as I am. What was the Bible saying, only
[14:36] Speaker 1: in God will my soul be at rest? See? So
[14:40] Speaker 1: when I orient my life not to my own ego
[14:43] Speaker 1: or anything in the world, now walk through the last
[14:46] Speaker 1: three I won't belabor it. Space. Nothing in space is
[14:50] Speaker 1: going to solve the anxiety that comes from being spatial.
[14:55] Speaker 1: Only when I'm ordered to God. Nothing in this world
[14:59] Speaker 1: is going to solve my problem of being caused, because
[15:02] Speaker 1: they've all been caused too. They're in the same bote
[15:06] Speaker 1: I am. Only in God is my soul at rest?
[15:09] Speaker 1: The point is The point is if finitude in awareness
[15:14] Speaker 1: is anxiety, and it is the only solution to that
[15:19] Speaker 1: is to order my life to that which transcends all
[15:22] Speaker 1: these things, namely to God. And that's why Brandon from
[15:25] Speaker 1: the heart of the Bible comes again and again. Don't
[15:29] Speaker 1: be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid the voice
[15:33] Speaker 1: of God. Right, kral Voi Tiva heard that voice as
[15:36] Speaker 1: a young kid, which is why he was able to
[15:39] Speaker 1: endure Look at the threats he faced, That's why he
[15:42] Speaker 1: was able to endure them. So sorry for that long
[15:44] Speaker 1: winded sermon, but I think that's why the category of
[15:49] Speaker 1: fear and the overcoming of fear is such an important one.
[15:54] Speaker 2: Let's talk about the relationship between fear and love. You
[15:59] Speaker 2: alluded to that verse earlier from one John four eighteen.
[16:02] Speaker 2: You'll hear it at weddings fairly often, that there is
[16:04] Speaker 2: no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
[16:09] Speaker 2: How does this work?
[16:11] Speaker 1: Where's fear come from? It comes from a focusing in
[16:14] Speaker 1: on my own finitude? Right? What's love? Love is overcoming
[16:20] Speaker 1: the incravatus in say, move and mind you. Tillic was
[16:23] Speaker 1: deeply indebted to Augustine, that was his favorite theologian. And
[16:28] Speaker 1: the more I'm in cravatus in may I'm caved in
[16:31] Speaker 1: on myself, the more afraid I'm going to be. Love
[16:35] Speaker 1: is always this extroverted move. It's the move outside and
[16:40] Speaker 1: the trajectory of love is in the direction of God,
[16:44] Speaker 1: who is love see, which is why perfect love. God
[16:49] Speaker 1: casts out all fear. See. And if that's right, Brandon,
[16:53] Speaker 1: it's interesting. Is fear at the root of all sin?
[16:57] Speaker 1: And I think you would say yes, even prior to
[16:59] Speaker 1: prime see, because what does fear do. I'm afraid, and
[17:03] Speaker 1: so I cling defensively. I'm afraid, and so I lash
[17:08] Speaker 1: out at you. See, we're all sinners, right, Analyze your
[17:13] Speaker 1: sin in terms of fear, and it can be very illuminating.
[17:17] Speaker 1: Why why am I doing these things that I know
[17:20] Speaker 1: are bad? I know they're self destructive. I think if
[17:24] Speaker 1: you are honest and you look deeply enough, you're going
[17:27] Speaker 1: to find at the bottom of your sin something like fear. Well,
[17:32] Speaker 1: perfect love. I live my life now in God casts
[17:36] Speaker 1: out that fear, and so I can live. I can
[17:40] Speaker 1: live now in imitation of the divine love. I don't
[17:43] Speaker 1: have to live cravatus and say, but I can live
[17:46] Speaker 1: now with this openness of heart and mind and so on.
[17:50] Speaker 1: I think that's how it works. But boy, what a
[17:52] Speaker 1: fundamental spiritual dynamic that is.
[17:56] Speaker 2: You've said often in your preaching Bishop that what each
[17:59] Speaker 2: of us us most ultimately fears is death, and I think,
[18:04] Speaker 2: especially in light of the COVID crisis, this has become
[18:06] Speaker 2: more poignant and pressing for a lot of people. Most
[18:10] Speaker 2: of us know somebody who's either contracted COVID or maybe
[18:13] Speaker 2: even died as a result of it. Whenever we think
[18:16] Speaker 2: of our own deaths, it's harrowing. When we think of
[18:19] Speaker 2: the deaths of others, we're equally afraid. Talk about how
[18:24] Speaker 2: we can overcome this fear of death, Well.
[18:28] Speaker 1: We can never really, in this life utterly overcome it.
[18:32] Speaker 1: Because I think again of Tillix categories time, space, causality, substance.
[18:36] Speaker 1: Why they're so fear inducing ultimately has to do with death,
[18:40] Speaker 1: doesn't it. Because I'm in time, I'm moving toward death.
[18:43] Speaker 1: Because I live in space, I can be threatened to
[18:46] Speaker 1: the point of death. Because I'm caused, those causes can
[18:50] Speaker 1: be taken away and I'll die. Because I'm a substance,
[18:53] Speaker 1: I can undergo substantial change. So all of them are
[18:56] Speaker 1: related to ultimately the fear of death. So as long
[18:59] Speaker 1: as I'm in this finite space, I can't just obliterate
[19:04] Speaker 1: I can't eliminate that fear. What I can do, though,
[19:07] Speaker 1: is place it within a wider context. So I'm not
[19:13] Speaker 1: just stuck in this world, but I'm living now in God.
[19:19] Speaker 1: So when Paul says it's no longer I who live,
[19:21] Speaker 1: but Christ who lives in me. Well, the old eye, right,
[19:25] Speaker 1: the eye is the sinful self, caught in time, space, causality,
[19:29] Speaker 1: and substance, and therefore clinging in fear. But when I've
[19:34] Speaker 1: I've displaced my heart. If you want onto Christ, it's
[19:39] Speaker 1: Christ now living in me. I can handle the fear.
[19:43] Speaker 1: It doesn't go away, but I found something that's more fundamental,
[19:48] Speaker 1: that's more enduring. Think of people, you know, I'm vot
[19:52] Speaker 1: was a good example, But you know some of these
[19:54] Speaker 1: wonderful witnesses who spent decades in prison and in soli
[20:00] Speaker 1: military confinement, unable to accomplish any of their goals and
[20:05] Speaker 1: so on, unable to attain the goods they wanted. But
[20:09] Speaker 1: yet they they endured. How do you explain that? But
[20:14] Speaker 1: they were able to relocate the center. So it was
[20:19] Speaker 1: outside of the fearful, finite self, and it was on
[20:22] Speaker 1: to Christ. They found the interior castle, they found the
[20:27] Speaker 1: inner wine cellar of John of the Cross. They found
[20:32] Speaker 1: that place where no storm can shake my inmost calm
[20:35] Speaker 1: while to that rock I'm clinging. It's that displacement of
[20:39] Speaker 1: your life onto God that's at the heart of the
[20:42] Speaker 1: spiritual life. It's why we pray every day, isn't it, Brandon?
[20:45] Speaker 2: You know?
[20:45] Speaker 1: And I do my Holy hour in the morning. Look,
[20:49] Speaker 1: I'm in time, space, causality, and substance. I mean, I'm
[20:52] Speaker 1: surrounded on all sides by my finitude, therefore by fear.
[20:57] Speaker 1: But in prayer, I'm trying to find the new center.
[21:02] Speaker 1: You know, I'm trying to find the Christ who lives
[21:05] Speaker 1: within me that gives me courage despite my finitude.
[21:12] Speaker 2: Let's close with this bishop. As we move into the
[21:14] Speaker 2: new year, there's still a lot of unknowns regarding COVID,
[21:18] Speaker 2: especially when it's going to ramp down, how long it's
[21:21] Speaker 2: going to last, the effects it's having religiously with our churches, economically,
[21:26] Speaker 2: with businesses, health wise, with our friends and loved ones.
[21:31] Speaker 2: As a pastor, as a bishop, what would you like
[21:34] Speaker 2: to say to the people of God, many of whom
[21:36] Speaker 2: are very fearful of what this new year of twenty
[21:39] Speaker 2: twenty one will bring.
[21:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, first of all, you're right, we don't know what
[21:43] Speaker 1: it's going to bring. Who guessed twenty twenty? You know,
[21:46] Speaker 1: when that year started, this last year, we had a
[21:50] Speaker 1: bishop's retreat in early January, you know, and I mean
[21:53] Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking at all about this rather difficult year
[21:57] Speaker 1: that was coming. We had the limit of visit with
[21:59] Speaker 1: the Pope, and we all were, you know, kind of good,
[22:01] Speaker 1: happy mood about that. No one saw twenty twenty coming.
[22:05] Speaker 1: What's twenty twenty one? I don't know. I don't know.
[22:07] Speaker 1: I live in time, and that's part of the dilemma
[22:10] Speaker 1: of it is I can't see the future. I row
[22:14] Speaker 1: into the future as in a rowboat, as to say,
[22:18] Speaker 1: facing backward. I'm not facing for I don't know where
[22:22] Speaker 1: I'm going as I row the boat. That's how we
[22:24] Speaker 1: all have to live, you know. Having said that, what
[22:27] Speaker 1: do you do? You stay close to the fire, You
[22:31] Speaker 1: stay ordered to the basics of the spiritual life. That
[22:36] Speaker 1: means prayer, to spend a lot of time. It means
[22:39] Speaker 1: the Mass, It means the sacraments. It means being rooted
[22:43] Speaker 1: in Christ. It means cooperating with the graces that come
[22:48] Speaker 1: to you, cooperating with these great theological gifts that we
[22:52] Speaker 1: call faith, hope and love. Right. To live in faith
[22:56] Speaker 1: means what I walk by faith, not by sight. I
[23:00] Speaker 1: mean I don't see everything clearly, but I have a
[23:04] Speaker 1: confidence to live in hope. I don't know how it's
[23:08] Speaker 1: all going to work out, but I hope because I
[23:12] Speaker 1: know that God is in charge of the world. Most importantly, love.
[23:17] Speaker 1: What's love, That's what God is right. So when you love,
[23:22] Speaker 1: and that could be the simplest thing you are participating
[23:26] Speaker 1: in God. In fact, you have found the place that
[23:31] Speaker 1: transcends the categories of finitude. I don't know if that
[23:35] Speaker 1: makes sense. That's made me the most important thing to get.
[23:38] Speaker 1: The simplest act of love has now transposed your life
[23:44] Speaker 1: into a higher setting. You have indeed stepped out of
[23:48] Speaker 1: the limits of finitude. That's cooperating with the most important
[23:53] Speaker 1: of the theological virtues.
[24:03] Speaker 2: Well, it's time now for one of our questions from
[24:05] Speaker 2: our listeners. You can send in any question you have
[24:08] Speaker 2: for Bishop Baron by visiting the website Askbishop Baron dot com. Today,
[24:13] Speaker 2: we've got a great question from a young postulent of
[24:15] Speaker 2: the OFMS. He's asking about how Jesus's divine and human
[24:21] Speaker 2: features interact together.
[24:23] Speaker 3: Here he is.
[24:25] Speaker 1: High Bishop Baron.
[24:27] Speaker 3: My name is Gus Spot and I'm a postulant with
[24:29] Speaker 3: the OFMS here in Silver Spring, Maryland. My question is
[24:34] Speaker 3: when Jesus took on a human nature, we'll see also
[24:37] Speaker 3: subject to things like doubt or ignorance. Thank you and
[24:42] Speaker 3: God bless.
[24:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for that question. And when I was teaching theology,
[24:46] Speaker 1: that question would come up a lot, and it's come
[24:48] Speaker 1: up in the Great Tradition. Notice something, please, that when
[24:51] Speaker 1: the Church talks about Jesus identity, it hardly ever psychologizes
[24:55] Speaker 1: about him. It uses metaphysical language. So he's the hyposthetic
[24:59] Speaker 1: or personal union and of two natures divine and human
[25:02] Speaker 1: coming together in one rational supposit. That would be like
[25:05] Speaker 1: the way the Church talks about it, one person divine
[25:09] Speaker 1: which lights up or instantiates two natures divine and human. Okay,
[25:14] Speaker 1: that's metaphysical language. That's the way the Church tends to
[25:16] Speaker 1: talk about Jesus, true God, true man, without mixing, mingling
[25:20] Speaker 1: or confusion, but in the unity of one divine person. Now,
[25:23] Speaker 1: notice in none of that have I psychologized about the
[25:26] Speaker 1: inner life of Jesus, like what it's like to be
[25:30] Speaker 1: inside that metaphysical arrangement. And I think there's something wise
[25:35] Speaker 1: about that, because we don't really know the other indications
[25:41] Speaker 1: in the Gospels Jesus in his humanity, you know, showing
[25:46] Speaker 1: signs of how he's culturally determined, how he's limited in
[25:50] Speaker 1: this way, and that how he seems to not be
[25:52] Speaker 1: aware of some things. So I would say, whatever is
[25:55] Speaker 1: congruent with the human nature and not incompatible with his
[25:59] Speaker 1: divine nature, we would say, yeah, he experiences that whatever
[26:04] Speaker 1: is is not congruent with his divinity. Well, we shouldn't
[26:08] Speaker 1: affirm that of his humanity. But what it's like to
[26:13] Speaker 1: experience that from the inside, I don't really know, and
[26:17] Speaker 1: no one really knows. And so in a way, the
[26:20] Speaker 1: Church I think is saying to us, don't press that question,
[26:23] Speaker 1: because there isn't really a good answer to it. Affirm
[26:27] Speaker 1: the bracingly objective language of the Great Tradition about the
[26:31] Speaker 1: divinity and humanity of Jesus that come together without mixing, mingling,
[26:35] Speaker 1: or confusion in the unity of one divine supposit. Stay
[26:38] Speaker 1: with that that's correct and orthodox. What it's like to
[26:42] Speaker 1: be in that space, I don't know. I don't know.
[26:48] Speaker 2: Well, thanks to everybody for listening and watching this episode.
[26:51] Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you to do something I haven't
[26:53] Speaker 2: asked in many, many months, and that's to leave a
[26:56] Speaker 2: review of this show. If you go to your favorite
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[27:02] Speaker 2: somewhere else, search the Word on Fire Show leave a review.
[27:05] Speaker 2: It takes just a couple seconds, but it's really beneficial
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[27:10] Speaker 2: more that these services recommend it to others. So maybe
[27:13] Speaker 2: you've been listening for years, maybe just for a few months,
[27:16] Speaker 2: but if you like the show, please do us a favor.
[27:18] Speaker 2: Take a few seconds.
[27:19] Speaker 1: Leave a review. We'd really appreciate it. Well.
[27:22] Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening and watching. We'll see you
[27:24] Speaker 2: next time on the Word on Fire Show.
[27:33] Speaker 1: Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed that video, I encourage
[27:36] Speaker 1: you to share it and be sure to subscribe to
[27:39] Speaker 1: my YouTube channel.

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