# What Life Is All About - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 6 Sep 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74918843/what_life_is_all_about_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the 17th
[0:03] Speaker 1: Sunday of Ordinary Time, and we're going to finish our
[0:05] Speaker 1: reading of the 13th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, that great
[0:09] Speaker 1: chapter dealing.
[0:11] Speaker 2: With the parables.
[0:12] Speaker 1: And gosh, the ones we hear today are so fine.
[0:16] Speaker 1: As I mentioned last week, there's a tendency to write
[0:18] Speaker 1: the parables off as nice little stories with a moral,
[0:22] Speaker 1: and they're kind of charming. No, no, the parables are
[0:25] Speaker 1: cutting to the heart of the matter in many ways.
[0:28] Speaker 1: It's Jesus' kind of preferred way of conveying the truths
[0:31] Speaker 1: of the kingdom. And these are really good examples. The
[0:34] Speaker 1: ones today are all about the summum bonum, the highest good.
[0:40] Speaker 1: And therefore, they're about what's most fundamental in the spiritual life.
[0:46] Speaker 1: You could argue the entire Bible is about this theme.
[0:50] Speaker 1: I've said the master theme of the Bible is right worship.
[0:53] Speaker 1: And see, that's the same thing. You worship, worthship what
[0:57] Speaker 1: you think is of highest good, highest value, the summum bonum.
[1:01] Speaker 2: So what is that, and how do you get your lives.
[1:04] Speaker 1: Ordered to it, makes all the difference, right? That's what
[1:08] Speaker 1: these are about. So the first one, Jesus said, the
[1:12] Speaker 1: kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
[1:16] Speaker 1: which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy,
[1:20] Speaker 1: goes and sells all that.
[1:22] Speaker 2: He has and buys that field. It's a cool image.
[1:26] Speaker 1: We're not going to get it right away, but in
[1:28] Speaker 1: the ancient world before, you know, insurance companies and all that,
[1:31] Speaker 1: when people left for whatever reason, maybe there was an
[1:34] Speaker 1: enemy army coming or whatever, they would bury sometimes their
[1:39] Speaker 1: valuables in the field, hoping that, you know, eventually they'd
[1:43] Speaker 1: come back and they'd be able to recover them.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Well, then, you know, who knows?
[1:46] Speaker 1: They were killed or they They were distracted. They never
[1:49] Speaker 1: came back. And that treasure remained buried in the field
[1:54] Speaker 1: until maybe many, many years later, as a farmer comes
[1:56] Speaker 1: along plowing and comes across the treasure. That's the image here.
[2:01] Speaker 1: So something you come upon that suddenly you realize this
[2:04] Speaker 1: is of enormous value. In fact, such great value, I'm
[2:07] Speaker 1: going to sell everything I've got to buy that field.
[2:12] Speaker 1: Or The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching
[2:15] Speaker 1: for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price,
[2:20] Speaker 1: he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
[2:24] Speaker 2: See, everybody, this is life. This is what it's about.
[2:29] Speaker 1: Do you muster the capacity in your life to say,
[2:34] Speaker 1: now that I found the summum bonum, the highest good,
[2:38] Speaker 1: the pearl, the treasure, I'm willing— to sacrifice or relativize
[2:45] Speaker 1: or set aside everything else. See? If I don't do
[2:51] Speaker 1: that— now, we'll come, at the end of this story,
[2:53] Speaker 1: we'll come to what happens. This is the whole drama
[2:57] Speaker 1: of the spiritual life. Can you muster the capacity to
[3:01] Speaker 1: order your life properly to.
[3:03] Speaker 2: The summum bonum? Okay. You say, I get that. I
[3:06] Speaker 2: get that. But what is it? How do I find it?
[3:10] Speaker 2: What is the treasure? What is the pearl of great price? Well,
[3:14] Speaker 2: let me rely here.
[3:15] Speaker 1: On both Pascal, the great French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher,
[3:21] Speaker 1: and Kierkegaard, the great nineteenth-century, mysterious philosophical thinker. They both
[3:27] Speaker 1: say something similar, really, about three stages of life or
[3:32] Speaker 1: three stages of value. Call them the goods of the body,
[3:39] Speaker 1: the goods of the mind, And then the goods of
[3:42] Speaker 1: the heart. What are the goods of the body? Well,
[3:47] Speaker 1: all those values associated with sensual pleasure. So food and
[3:52] Speaker 1: drink and sex and other forms of sensual delight.
[3:57] Speaker 2: Are those good things? Yes.
[3:59] Speaker 1: I've said a million times, Catholics aren't Puritans. We like
[4:02] Speaker 1: the body. We like the goods of the body. We're
[4:04] Speaker 1: in favor of food and drink and sex and sensual pleasure.
[4:07] Speaker 1: They're all good things. Whatever God makes is good. The ensemble,
[4:11] Speaker 1: very good. So we like all these things. They're goods.
[4:15] Speaker 2: But listen, everybody.
[4:17] Speaker 1: They're not the summum bonum. They're not the highest good. Now,
[4:24] Speaker 1: I mean, Plato understood this. This is a very ancient perception.
[4:28] Speaker 1: Why aren't they the summum bonum? If you're a hedonist, right?
[4:33] Speaker 1: You think they are the summum bonum. That's what life's
[4:35] Speaker 1: all about.
[4:36] Speaker 2: Eat, drink, and be merry.
[4:37] Speaker 1: That's what life's all about, getting as much pleasure as
[4:40] Speaker 1: you can. But what have sages across the ages realized? Well,
[4:47] Speaker 1: how ephemeral, how fleeting these goods are. I'm going to
[4:51] Speaker 1: give an example. When I was in Santa Barbara, I
[4:54] Speaker 1: was there for six years, lived in a beautiful, that
[4:56] Speaker 1: beautiful city. And one thing I love to do is
[4:59] Speaker 1: there were mountains right near my house, and I could
[5:02] Speaker 1: just walk a little bit and enter a mountain trail.
[5:05] Speaker 1: And there's this good, challenging walk kind of up the mountain.
[5:09] Speaker 1: I get to the top after this good exercise. I
[5:11] Speaker 1: could see Santa Barbara. I could see the Pacific Ocean.
[5:14] Speaker 1: I'd walk down this beautiful hill, and I'd get back home.
[5:17] Speaker 1: I'd get a tall glass of ice water, and I
[5:19] Speaker 1: would sit down in my comfortable chair on the back porch.
[5:23] Speaker 1: And my back porch looked up at the mountains. And
[5:26] Speaker 1: I'd sit down and After that good exercise and the
[5:29] Speaker 1: endorphins have been released, right?
[5:31] Speaker 2: And then I'm sipping the water. And at that moment,
[5:34] Speaker 2: looking up at the mountains, surrounded by beautiful things, I think,
[5:37] Speaker 2: this is bliss, you know? This is just it. I
[5:40] Speaker 2: love it. I love it. Then, a few minutes later,
[5:46] Speaker 2: the water's gone. And, okay, that was great.
[5:51] Speaker 1: And I'm, you know, waiting for my next thing.
[5:53] Speaker 2: What else am I going to do? Like all sensual pleasures,
[5:58] Speaker 2: It came and it went. Great. And then it passes.
[6:04] Speaker 2: Think of every meal you've.
[6:05] Speaker 1: Ever eaten, the best meal you've ever eaten, the best one,
[6:09] Speaker 1: surrounded by friends, nice cigar afterwards. And then the meal's
[6:14] Speaker 1: over and, okay, I feel kind of stuffed. My clothes
[6:18] Speaker 1: smell like cigars. Maybe I'm leaving a little bit sick
[6:22] Speaker 1: from that dinner. You know, sensual pleasure, it happens, and
[6:27] Speaker 1: then it's over. I've told you before about my addiction
[6:31] Speaker 1: to popcorn. Just today, before I came over here, I
[6:34] Speaker 1: had lunch. I had a very simple lunch, soup and
[6:36] Speaker 1: a little bit of chicken and cheese, and I was
[6:39] Speaker 1: still a little bit hungry.
[6:40] Speaker 2: And so I got this bowl of popcorn. And, you know,
[6:42] Speaker 2: when I'm eating popcorn, the first couple bites, it's like,
[6:46] Speaker 2: I'm in heaven. I love it. I just love it.
[6:48] Speaker 2: But then, of course, I ate the whole bowl of popcorn.
[6:51] Speaker 2: And afterwards... You've got.
[6:52] Speaker 1: The kernels stuck in your teeth, and your mouth's kind
[6:55] Speaker 1: of greasy, and you've got popcorn on you.
[6:59] Speaker 2: That's bodily pleasures. They're like that.
[7:02] Speaker 1: They come and they go. Wise people realize they're not
[7:06] Speaker 1: the summum bonum. They're not the treasure. They're not the
[7:09] Speaker 1: pearl of great price. They're good, but they're not summum bonum. Okay.
[7:16] Speaker 2: From the goods of the body to the goods of
[7:17] Speaker 2: the mind. Now, this is interesting.
[7:20] Speaker 1: As you mature and you get a broader experience of things,
[7:24] Speaker 1: you realize there are certain goods that are accessed through
[7:26] Speaker 1: the mind that are more substantial, less evanescent than the
[7:32] Speaker 1: mere goods of the body. Think now of someone, mathematics
[7:36] Speaker 1: and science and literature and philosophy, these goods of the
[7:40] Speaker 1: mind that give you access to deep and abiding truths
[7:44] Speaker 1: about the world, you know. You have, and Plato saw this,
[7:47] Speaker 1: you have stepped out of the ordinary world of sense experience,
[7:51] Speaker 1: the goods of the body, to a higher plane. The
[7:54] Speaker 1: great story here is Alexander the Great and Diogenes, the philosopher.
[7:58] Speaker 1: So the story, if it's not true, it should be, right?
[8:01] Speaker 1: That Diogenes is there on a sunny day, and he's
[8:04] Speaker 1: drawing figures on the ground. He's doing mathematical calculations. And
[8:09] Speaker 1: Alexander the Great had just conquered his town, and he'd
[8:11] Speaker 1: heard about this great sage. So Alexander comes and He
[8:15] Speaker 1: stands next to Diogenes, who's on the ground, and he says,
[8:18] Speaker 1: you know, I am Alexander. I've just conquered your city.
[8:21] Speaker 1: What can I do for you? And the philosopher responded,
[8:25] Speaker 1: you can get out of my light. He was blocking
[8:29] Speaker 1: the light, you know, for these things on the ground.
[8:34] Speaker 1: What does that show you? That he was saying, look, man,
[8:36] Speaker 1: I know you can give me any sensual pleasure I want.
[8:40] Speaker 1: I mean, you're the great Alexander, but I don't.
[8:42] Speaker 2: Want those things. I'm not interested in those things. I
[8:45] Speaker 2: moved to a higher plane, right?
[8:48] Speaker 1: Or one of my favorite stories is of Thomas Aquinas,
[8:50] Speaker 1: my hero, is that he and his brother Dominicans were
[8:53] Speaker 1: coming back from a journey and they were approaching the
[8:55] Speaker 1: city of Paris, which was seen in the Middle Ages
[8:57] Speaker 1: as it is today, one of the great cities in Europe.
[9:00] Speaker 2: And they came to this ridge and they.
[9:01] Speaker 1: Suddenly saw the city in all its splendor. One of
[9:04] Speaker 1: the brothers said, oh, what wouldn't you give for that city?
[9:08] Speaker 1: And Aquinas said, I'd give the whole thing if I
[9:11] Speaker 1: could just get that Chrysostom.
[9:12] Speaker 2: Commentary on Matthew.
[9:14] Speaker 1: As we're reading Matthew's Gospel here. Well, what that tells
[9:17] Speaker 1: you is Thomas Aquinas, I mean, he wasn't beguiled by
[9:20] Speaker 1: the sensual pleasures that could come from ruling the city
[9:25] Speaker 1: of Paris. He wanted Chrysostom's commentary. He had moved from
[9:29] Speaker 1: the mere goods of the body.
[9:30] Speaker 2: To the goods of the mind. Okay. Have we found
[9:34] Speaker 2: the summum bonum? Not yet. Not yet.
[9:38] Speaker 1: I mean, look, even those goods of the mind— philosophy, science,
[9:41] Speaker 1: mathematics— They give us access to certain truths, but we
[9:44] Speaker 1: know this. You answer one question, you've got ten more.
[9:48] Speaker 1: Answer those, you've got a hundred more. Whatever truth you
[9:51] Speaker 1: come to by means of these sciences, well, it's not
[9:54] Speaker 1: the totality of truth that the mind is looking for.
[9:58] Speaker 1: Lonergan said that, right? The mind wants to know everything
[10:01] Speaker 1: about everything. It's not satisfied by particular truths. So the
[10:06] Speaker 1: goods of the mind, they're good, very good, but.
[10:09] Speaker 2: They're not the summum bonum. What's the summum bonum?
[10:13] Speaker 1: What Pascal would call the goods of the heart— what
[10:18] Speaker 1: Kierkegaard would call the properly religious dimension of life. When
[10:23] Speaker 1: the soul, the heart, is opened up to God and
[10:28] Speaker 1: to the things of God, what have we found? In
[10:33] Speaker 1: God alone, we found the highest good. Not something as
[10:37] Speaker 1: evanescent as the goods of the world, like eating popcorn
[10:41] Speaker 1: and relaxing after a great hike or savoring a great
[10:46] Speaker 1: meal or.
[10:46] Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
[10:48] Speaker 1: Greater even than whatever philosophy and science and math can
[10:52] Speaker 1: give us. God being itself the source of existence. God,
[10:58] Speaker 1: the infinite God. Now we found the summum bonum, the
[11:04] Speaker 1: highest good.
[11:06] Speaker 2: Listen now.
[11:07] Speaker 1: In relation to whom all the other goods find their place. See,
[11:13] Speaker 1: we don't have to play the game of, I found God,
[11:17] Speaker 1: therefore I'm rejecting everything else.
[11:20] Speaker 2: No, no.
[11:22] Speaker 1: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
[11:28] Speaker 1: and the rest will be given unto you. Now, with
[11:32] Speaker 1: your loves properly ordered, you can see the relationship between
[11:37] Speaker 1: bodily goods, intellectual goods, and the summum bonum. But see,
[11:42] Speaker 1: the point is, everybody, once you've found the pearl of
[11:45] Speaker 1: great price, don't mess around with simulacra. Once you've found
[11:51] Speaker 1: the treasure, sell everything else, meaning don't treat anything else
[11:56] Speaker 1: as the summum bonum.
[11:58] Speaker 2: Lord, the God of Israel is a jealous God. That's
[12:00] Speaker 2: what it means.
[12:01] Speaker 1: Not that God's falling into a jealous snit. He doesn't
[12:04] Speaker 1: have emotions the way we do. It means there's no
[12:06] Speaker 1: competition here. You can't have two highest goods. When you
[12:11] Speaker 1: find the summum bonum, relativize everything else in your life
[12:17] Speaker 1: and order it there.
[12:20] Speaker 2: You know, a very good example of this to me
[12:23] Speaker 2: is the great Thomas More.
[12:26] Speaker 1: Lord Chancellor of England, a man who loved the good
[12:29] Speaker 1: things of the body. He had this manor house, and
[12:32] Speaker 1: he ate fine meals, and he was acquainted with the
[12:36] Speaker 1: most exalted spirits in Europe, and he knew the goods
[12:39] Speaker 1: of the body and of the mind.
[12:40] Speaker 2: Of course he did.
[12:43] Speaker 1: But when he was brought to the scaffold because he
[12:45] Speaker 1: had opposed Henry VIII, what did he say? I die
[12:49] Speaker 1: the king's good servant. Yeah, he was all his life.
[12:52] Speaker 1: He was the king's good servant. He served the political
[12:55] Speaker 1: ends of England. Yeah, he believed in that. He was
[12:58] Speaker 1: the king's good servant. But God's first, right? That's how
[13:03] Speaker 1: it works. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
[13:06] Speaker 1: his righteousness, and the rest will be given unto you.
[13:11] Speaker 1: What's the central tragedy of life? And I make bold
[13:13] Speaker 1: to say this without fear of contradiction. The central tragedy
[13:17] Speaker 1: of human life, as Augustine put it, is mistaking a
[13:20] Speaker 1: creature for the creator. When I take anything creaturely, a
[13:25] Speaker 1: good of the body or the mind, anything creaturely, and
[13:28] Speaker 1: I make that my summum bonum, all the trouble in
[13:33] Speaker 1: life that we experience spiritually and psychologically, everybody follows from
[13:38] Speaker 1: that fatal move. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
[13:45] Speaker 1: When you find the treasure, relativize everything else. When you
[13:49] Speaker 1: find the pearl, buy it, relativize everything else. To get
[13:56] Speaker 1: that right is to live as a citizen of the
[14:00] Speaker 1: kingdom of God. And God bless you.

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