# Be A True Witness - Bishop Barron's Keynote at the Good News Conference

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 9 Jul 2026, 52 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754556/be_a_true_witness_bishop_barron_s_keynote_at_the_good_news_conference.mp3



## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Thank you everybody. That's very nice.
[0:05] Speaker 2: Thank you, well, God bless you all. Thank you that
[0:12] Speaker 2: was very nice and love this conference. Delighted to be
[0:17] Speaker 2: part of this from the beginning and to see it
[0:19] Speaker 2: succeeding over these years is just a source of great
[0:22] Speaker 2: joy for me and a source of hope for the church.
[0:24] Speaker 1: So thank you everybody for being here.
[0:28] Speaker 2: As you can tell, I got a little bit of
[0:29] Speaker 2: a cold, so I'll be sipping some little water during this.
[0:33] Speaker 2: My voice makes it through the night.
[0:35] Speaker 1: I thought, before.
[0:36] Speaker 2: Getting to my formal talk we of course, maybe I
[0:39] Speaker 2: could just give you the homily I was planning to
[0:41] Speaker 2: give earlier tonight.
[0:46] Speaker 1: I thought i'd tell you a little bit about the synod.
[0:49] Speaker 2: I've been on a bit of a roller coaster the
[0:51] Speaker 2: last about six weeks or seven weeks. I met with
[0:55] Speaker 2: the priests of my diocese at Lake Okobojee, Iowa. Anyone
[0:59] Speaker 2: know where that is. It's a resort, you know, it's
[1:02] Speaker 2: a nice little town and the priests of my diocese.
[1:05] Speaker 1: Go there yearly for a retreat.
[1:07] Speaker 2: So I gave a series of talks in Okubogi, and
[1:10] Speaker 2: then I went directly from Okboji to rome Aboji. The
[1:16] Speaker 2: Pope had called all the CYNDED members over for a retreat.
[1:20] Speaker 2: So we went to a place called Sakrafano, which is
[1:23] Speaker 2: just north of Rome, a retreat center, and we spent
[1:26] Speaker 2: three or four days there listening to spiritual talks and
[1:30] Speaker 2: attending the liturgy.
[1:32] Speaker 1: And in many ways the Synod began on the retreat.
[1:35] Speaker 2: Because during the afternoons we gathered into these small groups
[1:39] Speaker 2: and began the process of, you know, talking through some issues.
[1:44] Speaker 2: The synod began formally I think on October the fourth,
[1:48] Speaker 2: lasted till October twenty ninth, so it was it was
[1:53] Speaker 2: a bit of a slog I must say the Senate.
[1:56] Speaker 2: I was at the synod five years ago on Young People,
[2:00] Speaker 2: and that too was four weeks, and it was tough
[2:03] Speaker 2: getting through it. They really work you in Rome, and
[2:07] Speaker 2: I was used to this. They work you from Monday
[2:10] Speaker 2: through Saturday. You get one day off a week during
[2:14] Speaker 2: the Senate. The day goes from about eight forty five
[2:18] Speaker 2: am till seven thirty pm, with a little break in
[2:21] Speaker 2: the afternoon for a Roman siesta. But it's a long
[2:25] Speaker 2: haul and it lasted four full weeks. I say most
[2:30] Speaker 2: of the syned members at the end were kind of exhausted,
[2:33] Speaker 2: we were kind of worn out.
[2:35] Speaker 1: The best thing about.
[2:36] Speaker 2: The Citate, I really mean this is the variety of
[2:40] Speaker 2: people that you meet.
[2:42] Speaker 1: So there were bishops, cardinals, lay people this time.
[2:46] Speaker 2: That was a novelty of the Senate from all over
[2:49] Speaker 2: the Catholic world. And what strikes you is there's probably
[2:53] Speaker 2: no other organization on the planet that could assemble such
[2:58] Speaker 2: a remarkably international crowd out as the Catholic Church can,
[3:02] Speaker 2: and that's a privilege. I remember on the retreat, you'd
[3:06] Speaker 2: get your food with there's this giant dining room and
[3:09] Speaker 2: you'd go in and their tables like this, and you
[3:11] Speaker 2: had no idea. There's a French speaking table, a Spanish
[3:14] Speaker 2: speaking table, there's a Swahili speaking table. Then you just
[3:18] Speaker 2: took your place and you know, did the best you could.
[3:21] Speaker 2: But it was a marvelous experience of.
[3:25] Speaker 1: The universality of the church. I love that about it.
[3:29] Speaker 2: The day proceeded usually with small groups as the main focus,
[3:36] Speaker 2: So think the tables just like this, ten or twelve
[3:39] Speaker 2: people we were assigned in the beginning, and then every
[3:43] Speaker 2: week we kind of shuffled around, so the groups changed.
[3:48] Speaker 2: I was with Gosh among many others, the Archbishop of
[3:52] Speaker 2: Hong Kong, the Archbishop of.
[3:54] Speaker 1: Vilnius in Lithuania.
[3:56] Speaker 2: I was with bishops from Malaysia, from Ghana, from Canada,
[4:04] Speaker 2: from the US, from.
[4:08] Speaker 1: Where else in Asia.
[4:09] Speaker 2: There were some Australia, of course, so extraordinary experience, and
[4:14] Speaker 2: we'd be around these tables. We were instructed that you
[4:19] Speaker 2: had to bring, as I knocked it over it, you
[4:22] Speaker 2: had to bring a five hundred word prepared statement to
[4:27] Speaker 2: the small group. So we had to entertain a particular question,
[4:30] Speaker 2: and they didn't want us just sharing.
[4:33] Speaker 1: Off the cuff.
[4:34] Speaker 2: We had to come with this prepared statement and then
[4:37] Speaker 2: we read them all around the twelve people around the table,
[4:42] Speaker 2: and then in another round we were able to respond
[4:44] Speaker 2: a little bit, and then of course each table would
[4:48] Speaker 2: report to the general session.
[4:52] Speaker 1: So that's kind of how the send had proceeded.
[4:55] Speaker 2: If you've ever dealt in your place of work with
[4:56] Speaker 2: this kind of small group dynamic, that was the idea.
[5:01] Speaker 2: This cynod was easier than five years ago because we
[5:03] Speaker 2: were in the Paul the sixth audience hall. If you've
[5:07] Speaker 2: been to Rome, you know where the Pope has this
[5:08] Speaker 2: big Wednesday audiences and his giant auditorium. And they cleared
[5:14] Speaker 2: out I don't know, maybe half the space of this room.
[5:17] Speaker 2: They cleared out the chairs, set up these round tables,
[5:21] Speaker 2: and so we were a little more spread out. In
[5:24] Speaker 2: all the previous centods you were in the Cynid Hall.
[5:28] Speaker 2: Maybe you've not seen that, but it's very claustrophobic, kind
[5:31] Speaker 2: of steep the theater seating and it's like the worst
[5:36] Speaker 2: middle seat on the airplane is where you sit. And
[5:40] Speaker 2: five years ago we had to wear the cassick every day,
[5:43] Speaker 2: so it was kind of hot and it was uncomfortable.
[5:46] Speaker 2: This time we were told we could just wear the
[5:48] Speaker 2: black suit like this, and we were sitting at these tables,
[5:51] Speaker 2: so it was a bit more physically comfortable, I'll tell you.
[5:55] Speaker 2: We each had the opportunity to see the Pope. The
[5:58] Speaker 2: Pope was not there all all the time as he
[6:02] Speaker 2: was five years ago. Five years ago, he was there
[6:04] Speaker 2: at the Senate all day every day. He's you know,
[6:07] Speaker 2: diminished a bit physically, and he just he's in the
[6:09] Speaker 2: wheelchair all the time. So we'd come in for two
[6:12] Speaker 2: or three hours, maybe a couple of days a week.
[6:15] Speaker 2: But when he came in, we took the opportunity to
[6:17] Speaker 2: go up one by one to greet him. So I
[6:21] Speaker 2: went up and sat down across from him, and we
[6:23] Speaker 2: spoke Spanish and had a little small talk.
[6:26] Speaker 1: And then he kind of leaned.
[6:29] Speaker 2: In toward me in this sort of conspiratorial way, and
[6:33] Speaker 2: he said, now, you you were from Chicago originally, and
[6:37] Speaker 2: I said that's right, and he said, I remember reading
[6:42] Speaker 2: a report about you when you were in Chicago. He
[6:45] Speaker 2: used the word in for me in Spanish, which means like.
[6:48] Speaker 1: A formal report.
[6:50] Speaker 2: I'm like, what did the report say?
[6:54] Speaker 1: And he said it like that kind of and he
[6:57] Speaker 1: said you know what it said.
[6:59] Speaker 2: I said, no, tell me. He said it said you
[7:02] Speaker 2: are the new Fulton Sheen. Well, I I say that
[7:12] Speaker 2: not to get that applause. Honestly, I say, I was
[7:15] Speaker 2: so relieved. I thought he was gonna fire me or something.
[7:19] Speaker 2: I read this report on you. But anyway, it was nice.
[7:22] Speaker 2: I mean, he does know I.
[7:23] Speaker 1: Think about word on fire and the work that we do,
[7:25] Speaker 1: so that that was a thrill. I mean to hear that.
[7:29] Speaker 2: Let me tell you, the Pope asked us, you know,
[7:31] Speaker 2: not to talk much about the stuff of the Senate
[7:36] Speaker 2: that they really work of the Senate. So I won't
[7:38] Speaker 2: do that. I'll just share a couple of maybe overarching
[7:41] Speaker 2: themes to my mind, and you would guess this from
[7:45] Speaker 2: if you read any of the preliminary work on the Senate.
[7:49] Speaker 2: People who have felt, for different reasons, marginalized from the church,
[7:55] Speaker 2: that their voices have not been heard, that they want
[7:59] Speaker 2: to be heard, they want to place around the table.
[8:03] Speaker 2: Lay people especially who have felt marginalized, want in around
[8:09] Speaker 2: the table where decisions are made in the church. And
[8:12] Speaker 2: so this whole idea of sentideality that's I think really
[8:15] Speaker 2: what most people mean by it is involving more and
[8:20] Speaker 2: more people in the governance of the church.
[8:23] Speaker 1: And my reaction, you know, we heard that over and
[8:25] Speaker 1: over and over again, was.
[8:28] Speaker 2: Fine because I think in our country we've had these
[8:32] Speaker 2: centinel structures for a long time.
[8:35] Speaker 1: I've been in three dioceses.
[8:36] Speaker 2: Of Chicago, la and now my own in Winona, Rochester,
[8:41] Speaker 2: and you know, the consultation of the laity takes place
[8:44] Speaker 2: at all sorts of levels, from finance councils to pastoral
[8:48] Speaker 2: councils to chancery offices. My own chancery office is ninety
[8:54] Speaker 2: percent lay people, majority women. Most parish councils I know
[8:58] Speaker 2: of are ninety percent or one hundred percent lay people
[9:01] Speaker 2: majority women.
[9:03] Speaker 1: Now my point there.
[9:03] Speaker 2: Is not to dismiss this concern, but to say, I
[9:07] Speaker 2: do think in our country we have a lot of
[9:09] Speaker 2: what people were calling for at the Senate. Now, a
[9:14] Speaker 2: point that I made often both in the small groups
[9:17] Speaker 2: and one time in the plenary.
[9:18] Speaker 1: Session was I get it.
[9:21] Speaker 2: I get the desire for more people to be involved
[9:24] Speaker 2: in the in the governance of the church. But I
[9:27] Speaker 2: would keep reminding folks, but for ninety eight percent of
[9:32] Speaker 2: the laity, right, I mean, so let's say all the
[9:35] Speaker 2: positions that can be filled by lay people were filled
[9:39] Speaker 2: in the governance of the church, you're still talking about
[9:42] Speaker 2: a tiny percentage of lay people. Ninety eight point seven
[9:46] Speaker 2: percent are meant to transform the world. That the task
[9:52] Speaker 2: of the laity, according to Vatican two, is to go
[9:55] Speaker 2: out into the secular order of finance and polity and
[10:00] Speaker 2: business and entertainment and everything else and to cristify it.
[10:05] Speaker 2: And so what I cautioned a few times at the
[10:08] Speaker 2: Senate was there's such an odd intra preoccupation of how
[10:13] Speaker 2: to get inside the governance of the church. When I
[10:16] Speaker 2: think Vatican two and the popes after Vatican two have
[10:20] Speaker 2: been emphasizing odd extra the laity going out into the world.
[10:26] Speaker 2: So that was a theme that surfaced quite a bit.
[10:30] Speaker 2: A second thing that concerned me a little bit. There
[10:33] Speaker 2: was a lot of talk about mission and you know,
[10:36] Speaker 2: the mission of the church, and the church doesn't have
[10:38] Speaker 2: a mission, it is a mission.
[10:40] Speaker 1: All that wonderful language from Paul the sixth and I
[10:43] Speaker 1: think that's gotten into people's minds and hearts. They got
[10:47] Speaker 1: that message, which is good. But as I read the documents.
[10:51] Speaker 2: And heard much of the conversation, too often, I thought
[10:55] Speaker 2: mission seemed.
[10:57] Speaker 1: To be the you know, the amelia.
[11:00] Speaker 2: Of political and economic conditions in the world. Important stuff
[11:05] Speaker 2: social justice, and I'll say more about it tonight in
[11:07] Speaker 2: my talk, But I worried at times that we didn't
[11:12] Speaker 2: hear the language of eternal life and grace and salvation
[11:17] Speaker 2: and heaven and hell and the cross and redemption, you.
[11:21] Speaker 1: Know, the the properly supernatural dimension.
[11:31] Speaker 2: And what I argued both in the at the tables
[11:34] Speaker 2: and at the plenary session was, yes, the supernatural lifts
[11:39] Speaker 2: up the natural. Right Aquittas says that right that grace
[11:43] Speaker 2: doesn't destroy nature, it perfects it and elevates it. And
[11:47] Speaker 2: so yes, of course we're more committed to social justice.
[11:51] Speaker 2: We're more committed to the poor the more we understand
[11:55] Speaker 2: the supernatural dimension of the church's life.
[11:57] Speaker 1: So that's the point I made number of times.
[12:01] Speaker 2: Those are just a couple of themes I'll share with
[12:03] Speaker 2: you at the moment. We're midway through the process. We'll
[12:08] Speaker 2: meet again next October. We all said to the organizers
[12:13] Speaker 2: of the synod, please make it shorter next year, because
[12:18] Speaker 2: we all thought that being away from our dioceses for
[12:21] Speaker 2: five weeks was a lot. So we'll see what happens
[12:24] Speaker 2: next year when I think they're going to take the
[12:27] Speaker 2: themes that emerge during this first round and then try
[12:30] Speaker 2: to focus them. So anyway, just want to give you
[12:32] Speaker 2: a little flavor of the synod. I'm going to publish
[12:39] Speaker 2: a piece of relatively longer piece on the synod sharing
[12:43] Speaker 2: some of these ideas.
[12:44] Speaker 1: It will come out I think next week. Okay, And
[12:50] Speaker 1: now to my talk. I love the theme you chose witness.
[13:01] Speaker 2: Because it speaks to something everybody that is really distinctive
[13:05] Speaker 2: to Christianity. Christianity is not a philosophy, though it can
[13:10] Speaker 2: incorporate philosophy. It's not primarily a mysticism, though it can
[13:15] Speaker 2: incorporate mysticism.
[13:18] Speaker 1: It's not a.
[13:18] Speaker 2: Religion that comes welling up out of natural experience, though
[13:22] Speaker 2: it can accommodate that. Christianity is about something that happened
[13:31] Speaker 2: and there were witnesses of it. Something happened and there
[13:39] Speaker 2: were witnesses of it. Without that, Christianity falls apart. I've
[13:46] Speaker 2: said before what distinguishes the Gospels from any other form
[13:53] Speaker 2: of religious literature, whether it's it's Sufi poets, or it's
[13:58] Speaker 2: Buddhist sages.
[13:59] Speaker 1: Or can fusion philosophers.
[14:02] Speaker 2: The difference is the Gospels are grabbing you by the
[14:06] Speaker 2: lapels and telling you something happened. The other religions might
[14:12] Speaker 2: talk about ethical principles and mystical intuitions and deep philosophical ideas,
[14:19] Speaker 2: all of which are fine, but there's something sort of
[14:22] Speaker 2: musing and reflective about them. Then there's the Gospel, mind you,
[14:30] Speaker 2: Gospel uwan Gellion, good news. Something happened, something happened, and
[14:39] Speaker 2: there were witnesses to it, and they were so overwhelmed
[14:45] Speaker 2: by what they saw that they wanted to grab everybody by.
[14:49] Speaker 1: The lapels and tell them about it. That's Christianity.
[14:54] Speaker 2: Now, what happened, Jesus happened Yeshua this first century jew
[15:06] Speaker 2: They saw and heard his teaching and his preaching. They
[15:11] Speaker 2: saw his healing. Above all, they saw him die, and
[15:21] Speaker 2: they saw him.
[15:21] Speaker 1: Rise from the dead.
[15:24] Speaker 2: Now look at that first one that they saw him die.
[15:27] Speaker 2: It was very important for the ancient Romans, who knew
[15:31] Speaker 2: how to put people to death by the way, they
[15:33] Speaker 2: were expert at it. It was very important for them
[15:37] Speaker 2: that a crucifixion be public. It was meant as a deterrent.
[15:43] Speaker 2: And that's why Jesus is crucified right outside the walls
[15:47] Speaker 2: of Jerusalem.
[15:48] Speaker 1: We say Mount Calvary.
[15:50] Speaker 2: You know, the word just means a skull, is like
[15:53] Speaker 2: a little rise in the ground near a quarry. They think,
[15:57] Speaker 2: kind of a garbage dump area. But the idea was
[16:01] Speaker 2: to crucify him right by the city gates, so anyone
[16:04] Speaker 2: coming and going would see him.
[16:08] Speaker 1: Can you imagine, everybody, what it.
[16:09] Speaker 2: Was like for the first followers of Jesus, especially his disciples,
[16:16] Speaker 2: to see him die.
[16:20] Speaker 1: I mean, how devastating it must have been.
[16:22] Speaker 2: Here's the one we think of the road to a
[16:24] Speaker 2: Maias story. You hear it echoed, don't you? In that
[16:28] Speaker 2: we thought he was the one who was to rule
[16:31] Speaker 2: in Israel, but obviously he was not this one who
[16:36] Speaker 2: I mean claimed to be the son of God who
[16:39] Speaker 2: spoke and acted in the very person of God, the
[16:42] Speaker 2: Mashiach of Israel, the anointed One, the great Davidic warrior.
[16:47] Speaker 1: That's what we thought he was. And then we saw
[16:50] Speaker 1: him die in this horrific way. He didn't die in
[16:56] Speaker 1: his bed, you know, from a long illness. He's brutally
[17:00] Speaker 1: put to death by the Romans.
[17:03] Speaker 2: How utterly devastating it must have been. But then they
[17:11] Speaker 2: saw something else, didn't they, These witnesses, these first witnesses,
[17:18] Speaker 2: they saw Jesus risen from the dead. You know, I
[17:22] Speaker 2: just came across this a couple days ago.
[17:24] Speaker 1: Graham Green, the great Catholic novelists. Right by the end of.
[17:28] Speaker 2: His life, he'd be sort of alienated from the Church.
[17:31] Speaker 2: But you know his great novels The Power and the
[17:33] Speaker 2: Glory and the End of the Affair, And you know
[17:35] Speaker 2: he's a Catholic writer. He said one of the things
[17:38] Speaker 2: that led him to accept Christian faith was the account
[17:43] Speaker 2: in John's Gospel of the two disciples.
[17:46] Speaker 1: Running to the tomb.
[17:48] Speaker 2: Remember that that John and Peter run to the tomb,
[17:50] Speaker 2: and John out ran him and got there first, but
[17:53] Speaker 2: then waited for Peter and Graham. Green said, it's such
[17:56] Speaker 2: a weird thing to put into his story unless it
[18:01] Speaker 2: was vividly remembered. The peculiarity of that moment when these
[18:08] Speaker 2: witnesses came and first saw the empty tomb. Remember to
[18:14] Speaker 2: the detail in John of the burial claus and the
[18:17] Speaker 2: head covering rolled.
[18:18] Speaker 1: Up by itself. Why would you, if you're just telling
[18:22] Speaker 1: a mythic story.
[18:22] Speaker 2: Why would you include a detail like that unless it
[18:26] Speaker 2: was vividly remembered. One of the great clues I think
[18:32] Speaker 2: to the reality of the resurrection. It's in Acts chapter ten.
[18:36] Speaker 2: We always read it on Easter Sunday, one of those
[18:41] Speaker 2: early charigmatic proclamations.
[18:46] Speaker 1: You know, the things that happened up in.
[18:47] Speaker 2: Galilee, and the baptism that was offered by John, and
[18:51] Speaker 2: then the stuff that happened down in Judea.
[18:53] Speaker 1: You remember all that stuff. That's how the speech begins.
[18:56] Speaker 2: It's like if I were to say to you, you know,
[18:57] Speaker 2: I started the other day.
[18:58] Speaker 1: I was up in Baltimore.
[19:00] Speaker 2: Then I drove to Washington and got on a plane
[19:02] Speaker 2: and flew here to Orlando. Would you think for a second,
[19:06] Speaker 2: I was telling you a myth or a legend. No, no,
[19:11] Speaker 2: you say, oh, what happened next? So you're Baltimore than
[19:14] Speaker 2: Washington and Orlando. Yeah, that what happened, you would assume, correctly,
[19:18] Speaker 2: I was telling you about something that happened, something real. Well,
[19:23] Speaker 2: that's exactly how that charigmatic proclamation commences, all those things
[19:30] Speaker 2: about Jesus of Nazareth, and then there's this line that
[19:36] Speaker 2: it always takes my breath away. Attend to it this
[19:39] Speaker 2: coming easter. When you hear it, we who ate and
[19:46] Speaker 2: drank with him after his resurrection from the dead. Let
[19:53] Speaker 2: that sink in. So he's talking about something real. Galilee,
[19:58] Speaker 2: the Judea, John, the Baft, you remember all that, and
[20:00] Speaker 2: then the Jesus.
[20:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember all that.
[20:03] Speaker 2: We ate and drank with him after his resurrection from
[20:09] Speaker 2: the dead. That's not how myth makers talk. That's not
[20:16] Speaker 2: how people who are trading in legends talk. You know
[20:19] Speaker 2: what they talk by the way, a long time ago,
[20:22] Speaker 2: when a galaxy far far away.
[20:25] Speaker 1: But see, that's exactly the clue, correctly that I'm now
[20:29] Speaker 1: going to tell you an archetypal tale.
[20:32] Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you a legend, a myth. It's
[20:35] Speaker 2: like once upon a time, that's my clue that, well,
[20:38] Speaker 2: this didn't really happen. It's an archetypal story. And then
[20:42] Speaker 2: there's the Gospels that don't talk that way. They say
[20:46] Speaker 2: things like, you know, it was Punch's pilot who put
[20:50] Speaker 2: him to death, and isn't it wonderful? Every Sunday we
[20:53] Speaker 2: repeat that he was crucified under Pontius Pilatus, a a
[21:00] Speaker 2: datable Roman governor. We have physical evidence of his existence.
[21:06] Speaker 2: How powerful that is?
[21:07] Speaker 1: This Jesus we're talking about.
[21:09] Speaker 2: He was crucified under Pontius Pilatus.
[21:12] Speaker 1: And we ate and drank with him after his resurrection
[21:18] Speaker 1: from the dead. We are witnesses to it. You know,
[21:24] Speaker 1: I thought of this everybody often. When I was in Rome.
[21:27] Speaker 1: I stayed at the North American College.
[21:29] Speaker 2: I don't know if you know where that is on
[21:31] Speaker 2: the Geniculum Hill, So it's just a little bit south
[21:34] Speaker 2: of Saint Peter's and the Nack we call it the
[21:39] Speaker 2: North American NAC is built on the top of the Janiculum,
[21:43] Speaker 2: and then on the top of the Nack, the fifth
[21:45] Speaker 2: floor they have these guest rooms where bishops tend to
[21:49] Speaker 2: stay when they go there. So my room, lovely place,
[21:52] Speaker 2: and these windows that look beautifully out on Saint Peter's Basilica.
[21:59] Speaker 1: So like at night, with.
[22:00] Speaker 2: The lights on it, I would just I would just
[22:03] Speaker 2: muse at the window, looking at the dome of Saint
[22:05] Speaker 2: Peter's and I often thought, underneath that dome lies Chemeeon Barriona,
[22:16] Speaker 2: this fisherman from Caparnum who one day met Yeshua from Nazareth,
[22:23] Speaker 2: and Yeshua gave him a new name, Simon Chameon Barriona, Simon,
[22:29] Speaker 2: son of John.
[22:30] Speaker 1: From now on, you're.
[22:31] Speaker 2: Gonna be called Kephas Rocky, rendered in Greek as Petross
[22:37] Speaker 2: and Latin as Petrus Peter.
[22:40] Speaker 1: And on that rock I'm gonna build my church. And
[22:44] Speaker 1: by God, it occurred to me.
[22:46] Speaker 2: Night after night I gazed out at that dome. There
[22:49] Speaker 2: he is under that dome. There he is Petrus Kephas
[22:56] Speaker 2: Chameon Barriona, who knew Jesus, who was a witness to
[23:01] Speaker 2: his death and resurrection, who ate and drank with him
[23:05] Speaker 2: after his resurrection from the dead, and he lies there
[23:08] Speaker 2: underneath the most beautiful.
[23:10] Speaker 1: Grave marker in the world. And that's what Saint Peter's
[23:13] Speaker 1: Basilica is, isn't it.
[23:15] Speaker 2: It's saying Peter's here, Peter's here, Peter's here.
[23:19] Speaker 1: This guy that knew Jesus. You know that line from
[23:22] Speaker 1: First Letter of John. He said, I speak to you
[23:25] Speaker 1: of the Word of life.
[23:27] Speaker 2: Well, okay, I can imagine any philosopher or religious mystic
[23:31] Speaker 2: saying that. But then he adds the word of life
[23:35] Speaker 2: that we looked upon, that we saw with our eyes
[23:40] Speaker 2: and touched with our hands.
[23:43] Speaker 1: Now that's the difference.
[23:44] Speaker 2: Everybody a witness, a witness who saw him, touched him,
[23:50] Speaker 2: ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead.
[23:53] Speaker 2: That's the still shocking revolutionary novelty upon which Christianity rests.
[24:01] Speaker 2: Don't let it turn into a vague philosophy. Don't let
[24:05] Speaker 2: them turn Christianity into one religion among many. It's based
[24:10] Speaker 2: upon witnesses who saw the resurrection.
[24:14] Speaker 1: They saw Jesus risen from the dead. Now what makes
[24:19] Speaker 1: that something more than just wow, what an extraordinary one
[24:23] Speaker 1: off event?
[24:24] Speaker 2: That is?
[24:26] Speaker 1: It's because they interpret it right away in light of Israel.
[24:34] Speaker 1: What is Israel? The people Israel, but God's rescue operation.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Right after Sin had messed with the beauty and integrity
[24:44] Speaker 2: of God's creation, he sends a rescue operation, this people Israel,
[24:49] Speaker 2: whom He's going to shape according to his mind and heart,
[24:52] Speaker 2: gave him Covenant, Law, Torah, Temple, prophecy, all these great institutions.
[24:59] Speaker 2: And then Israel dreams that one day a mashiach, an
[25:05] Speaker 2: anointed one would come who would represent the fulfillment of
[25:10] Speaker 2: all of the institutions of Israel. Who would be the
[25:13] Speaker 2: Temple in its fullness, the place of right praise. He'd
[25:17] Speaker 2: be the fulfillment of law and covenant. He'd be the
[25:20] Speaker 2: prophet par excellence. He'd be David par excellence, who would finally.
[25:25] Speaker 1: Deal with the enemies of Israel what they saw.
[25:30] Speaker 2: And Paul, Paul, of course, who was Shahoul, Rabbi Shahoul
[25:36] Speaker 2: until he saw him. Revisit Paul's letters sometimes read them
[25:44] Speaker 2: as though you read them for the first time. Here's
[25:48] Speaker 2: this Shahoul on fire with the traditions of his father's.
[25:52] Speaker 2: He's a on fire Israelite, and he wants to do
[25:55] Speaker 2: damage to these Christians because they're making all these crazy claims,
[25:59] Speaker 2: and so off he goes the Acts of the Apostle, says.
[26:02] Speaker 1: Breathing murderous threats. And then he saw him, He witnessed
[26:12] Speaker 1: the resurrected Jesus. He saw him, and you know everybody,
[26:16] Speaker 1: even from a sheerly.
[26:18] Speaker 2: Historical standpoint, I don't know how else to explain how
[26:22] Speaker 2: you get from Shaoul breathing murderous threats to the apostle Paul.
[26:28] Speaker 1: How do you get there? How do you explain that
[26:32] Speaker 1: he witnessed something.
[26:34] Speaker 2: He witnessed the same thing Peter did, same thing, John did,
[26:37] Speaker 2: same thing the apostles did, and they understood something God
[26:47] Speaker 2: has dealt with the enemies of Israel, but not in
[26:52] Speaker 2: the way they expected.
[26:56] Speaker 1: That Roman cross would represent every lousy, negative, cruel, hateful
[27:05] Speaker 1: aspect of the sinful world. This symbol. You know, you
[27:11] Speaker 1: get on our wrong side, We're going to hang you
[27:13] Speaker 1: on this thing until you die.
[27:16] Speaker 2: And it's about the worst way to die that human
[27:18] Speaker 2: beings have ever devised. And so this thing was meant
[27:22] Speaker 2: to terrify the world. It's summed up everything wrong with
[27:26] Speaker 2: humanity in our cruelty and violence and hatred.
[27:32] Speaker 1: Yes, sure, this friend of Peter and John and James.
[27:39] Speaker 2: Was crucified on one of these awful instruments of torture,
[27:44] Speaker 2: and God raised him from the dead, which means what everybody,
[27:50] Speaker 2: that God's love and mercy are more powerful than anything
[27:55] Speaker 2: that's in the world, more powerful than rome, than anything
[28:00] Speaker 2: can throw at them, more powerful than any hatred, any cruelty,
[28:04] Speaker 2: any violence, any injustice.
[28:06] Speaker 1: Our God is more powerful. And that's why.
[28:10] Speaker 2: And this process begins even in the New Testament period
[28:14] Speaker 2: when Paul talks about I displayed before your eyes Jesus crucified.
[28:20] Speaker 2: That that's a weird thing to say in the first century.
[28:23] Speaker 2: What do you mean you're displaying someone crucified. That's like
[28:26] Speaker 2: the ugliest, grossest, most most disgusting thing.
[28:30] Speaker 1: You could show. But look how we still do it. Here.
[28:34] Speaker 2: I'm standing before you as a bishop of the Catholic Church,
[28:38] Speaker 2: and I got this thing in gold because that's a taunt.
[28:43] Speaker 2: Say I'm saying this meant I wear that as a taunt.
[28:47] Speaker 2: We say, well, it's this a nice religious symbol. No, no, no,
[28:50] Speaker 2: it's a taunt. You think this scares us, We're gonna
[28:54] Speaker 2: put gold at it because we realize God is more powerful.
[28:59] Speaker 1: Than this awful thing. Think of that, everyone, when you
[29:03] Speaker 1: when you see a cross, that's what it means. You know.
[29:12] Speaker 1: I had the privilege a few months ago.
[29:14] Speaker 2: I was over in London and uh I gave a
[29:16] Speaker 2: talk at the at the Parliament, not in the Parliament,
[29:18] Speaker 2: but it was in the Parliament building area. And at
[29:22] Speaker 2: the end of it, I reminded him, I said, you know,
[29:24] Speaker 2: have you guys looked recently at the union jack which
[29:27] Speaker 2: flies over the Parliament houses. The Union jack is a
[29:32] Speaker 2: is a confluence of three crosses, right, So think about
[29:37] Speaker 2: that for a second. Fluttering over the the uh government
[29:41] Speaker 2: center of this great world power is the cross on
[29:46] Speaker 2: which this young Jewish rabbi was put to death.
[29:49] Speaker 1: In the first century. How weird that is, isn't it.
[29:52] Speaker 1: How strange that is.
[29:55] Speaker 2: But it's done there too, if you properly understand it
[29:57] Speaker 2: as a taunt God Odds, mercy is greater than anything
[30:02] Speaker 2: that's in the world. That's what they witnessed. That's what
[30:07] Speaker 2: they witnessed to. That's what we still need to witness to. Okay,
[30:13] Speaker 2: that's the first part of my talk, but I don't worry.
[30:17] Speaker 2: It's gonna be quick the second part. So you say, okay, Bishop,
[30:25] Speaker 2: I think I get that. I think I get these
[30:27] Speaker 2: sort of lofty ideas about the nature of Christianity.
[30:31] Speaker 1: But what about me, what about my life? Well, let
[30:35] Speaker 1: me do the translation.
[30:36] Speaker 2: Though maybe you've heard me say I've quoted a number
[30:40] Speaker 2: of times Dorothy Day, the foundress of the Catholic Worker movement,
[30:44] Speaker 2: said everything a baptized Christian does every day, everything should
[30:51] Speaker 2: be directly or indirectly related to the corporal and spiritual
[30:55] Speaker 2: works of mercy.
[30:58] Speaker 1: I remember I read that years ago, and and it's
[31:00] Speaker 1: one of those lines that just changes you.
[31:03] Speaker 2: Everything a baptized Christian does every day should be directly
[31:08] Speaker 2: or indirectly related.
[31:10] Speaker 1: To the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. You see
[31:14] Speaker 1: the translation. Now, what does this mean.
[31:19] Speaker 2: That they witness to that God's mercy conquers all evil.
[31:25] Speaker 2: God's love and mercy are greater than.
[31:28] Speaker 1: Anything that's in the world.
[31:30] Speaker 2: So our job now, as we witness to Christ, is
[31:36] Speaker 2: to become channels of that mercy to the world.
[31:41] Speaker 1: That's our job. That's Christianity.
[31:44] Speaker 2: That's what it looks like when you translate these loftier
[31:48] Speaker 2: ideas into life.
[31:50] Speaker 1: So what I want to do, I'll do it real briefly.
[31:52] Speaker 1: Don't worry. I won't go plowing through each one.
[31:55] Speaker 2: And you know, if you don't know the corporate spiritual works,
[31:58] Speaker 2: just google them or Siri just says, hey, Siri, what
[32:02] Speaker 2: are the corporal and spiritual works?
[32:04] Speaker 1: And they'll pop up. But I just want to say
[32:07] Speaker 1: a word about at least some of them. The corporal works,
[32:12] Speaker 1: the first three olt group together, feed the hungry, give
[32:17] Speaker 1: drink to the thirsty, and clothe the naked. And I
[32:21] Speaker 1: love about that.
[32:22] Speaker 2: I love how concrete those are. That's the word our
[32:26] Speaker 2: present pope uses a lot, I think correctly, the concrete.
[32:32] Speaker 2: Oh I'm a person of mercy. Yeah, that's nice, fancy talk.
[32:37] Speaker 2: But on the ground, what does mercy look like. It
[32:40] Speaker 2: looks like feeding the hungry, giving drink to thirsty people,
[32:45] Speaker 2: and clothing naked people. You know, I lived in Santa Barbara,
[32:50] Speaker 2: California for six years when I was auxiliary out there,
[32:53] Speaker 2: so one of the most exclusive, beautiful places to live
[32:58] Speaker 2: in the whole country.
[33:00] Speaker 1: And Prince Harry lived about fifteen minutes from where I lived.
[33:05] Speaker 2: But I guarantee you I know this for a fact,
[33:07] Speaker 2: about ten minutes from where I lived, there were also
[33:12] Speaker 2: hungry and thirsty people.
[33:14] Speaker 1: It's true of everybody in this room.
[33:16] Speaker 2: I don't care where you live, I don't care how
[33:18] Speaker 2: exclusive a neighborhood. Ten minutes from where you live, there
[33:22] Speaker 2: are hungry and thirsty people.
[33:26] Speaker 1: What are we doing now to feed them and give
[33:30] Speaker 1: them drink? Soup kitchens, shelters for the homeless, those exist
[33:37] Speaker 1: within easy striking distance of everyone in this room. How
[33:42] Speaker 1: much time are we spending there? How many donations are
[33:46] Speaker 1: we giving when we prepare a meal?
[33:48] Speaker 2: Can we double what we need, freeze half of that
[33:52] Speaker 2: and then bring it down to the homeless shelter or
[33:55] Speaker 2: the soup kitchen?
[33:57] Speaker 1: You know. Clothe the naked?
[34:00] Speaker 2: I think you can do a lot of interesting spiritual
[34:03] Speaker 2: work when you go into in your closet.
[34:07] Speaker 1: Go into your closet, like everybody in this room. It's
[34:09] Speaker 1: true for me, there are a lot.
[34:13] Speaker 2: Of things in that closet I haven't worn in probably
[34:16] Speaker 2: four years, you know what I mean. Someone one said
[34:19] Speaker 2: there should be an expiration date on clothes, like there's
[34:22] Speaker 2: on food, Like if you've not worn that thing in
[34:24] Speaker 2: a year, it's time to give it away. I propose
[34:28] Speaker 2: that as a spiritual exercise to you. Go into your
[34:31] Speaker 2: closet and it's look at your shoes and shirts and
[34:33] Speaker 2: pants or dresses or whatever you got in there. How
[34:37] Speaker 2: much do I really need? And can I give the
[34:40] Speaker 2: rest to those who do desperately need clothing the naked
[34:45] Speaker 2: who are among us? Even now, you know that line
[34:49] Speaker 2: has been attributed to both Ambrose of Milan and John Chrisystem.
[34:53] Speaker 1: If you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs
[34:57] Speaker 1: to you, the other belongs to the man who has
[35:00] Speaker 1: no shirt, one of those lines again that changes your
[35:04] Speaker 1: life when it sinks in. Think of it again. There
[35:07] Speaker 1: are two shirts in your closet. Uh huh. One belongs
[35:10] Speaker 1: to you, the other belongs to the person with no shirt.
[35:14] Speaker 2: You know, when Pope Francis he got criticized a lot
[35:16] Speaker 2: for this, but unjustly, when he spoke some years ago
[35:20] Speaker 2: about the universal destination of goods. Remember that people say
[35:24] Speaker 2: he's a Marxist, And it's not Marx, that's Aquinas. Right
[35:28] Speaker 2: that we have a right to private ownership, says Aquinas,
[35:32] Speaker 2: but when it comes to the use of our private property,
[35:35] Speaker 2: we must always have the common good first in mind.
[35:40] Speaker 2: That's not Marx, that's Thomas Aquinas. And Aquinas stands in
[35:43] Speaker 2: the tradition going back to Jesus and to Isaiah and
[35:47] Speaker 2: to Amos and Hoseiah and the Hebrew prophets clothe the naked.
[35:53] Speaker 2: There are people within ten minutes where you live. I
[35:55] Speaker 2: guarantee you who need clothes.
[35:58] Speaker 1: Can we do.
[35:58] Speaker 2: Something to address that problem? Next one, shelter the homeless. Gosh,
[36:05] Speaker 2: when I was in LA I started there in twenty fifteen,
[36:09] Speaker 2: and you'd walk around downtown LA near the cathedral, and
[36:13] Speaker 2: you'd see a lot of homeless people. But six years
[36:16] Speaker 2: later when I left, I think the problem was ten
[36:19] Speaker 2: times worse, twenty times worse. Maybe homeless people all over
[36:24] Speaker 2: the place in California, but you know that every city,
[36:27] Speaker 2: every major city in our country. Now that's a very
[36:31] Speaker 2: real pressing need calling out for works of mercy.
[36:36] Speaker 1: Go back to Dorothy Day again.
[36:37] Speaker 2: She said, writing back in the thirties that she didn't
[36:42] Speaker 2: like Roosevelt's New Deal. How come because it made everything
[36:46] Speaker 2: a government program instead of something that.
[36:49] Speaker 1: We should be doing ourselves. It makes it more challenging,
[36:53] Speaker 1: not less. Right, what are we doing to address that issue?
[36:57] Speaker 1: To shelter the homeless? Next one, visit the imprisoned again,
[37:03] Speaker 1: what are we doing?
[37:04] Speaker 2: We're embodying this, this taunt that God's mercy is greater
[37:09] Speaker 2: than anything in the world.
[37:10] Speaker 1: So don't believe it when they say no, no, these
[37:12] Speaker 1: are intractable, impossible problems. God's love is more powerful, So
[37:17] Speaker 1: let's get to work. Let's join his army. Visit the imprisoned.
[37:23] Speaker 1: My model here is Johnny Cash.
[37:26] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash who played in prisons a lot, and when
[37:31] Speaker 2: he was asked one time, how come you play in prisons,
[37:33] Speaker 2: he said, well, first.
[37:34] Speaker 1: They're the best audience.
[37:37] Speaker 2: But then he said secondly, and it's an entirely satisfactory answer.
[37:41] Speaker 2: It seems to me, he said, because I'm a Christian, right,
[37:44] Speaker 2: it's a good answer. Christians visit the imprisoned. When I
[37:49] Speaker 2: was in California, there was a there was a youth
[37:52] Speaker 2: detention center in Oxnard, and you'd see these kids. They
[37:57] Speaker 2: are like fifteen sixteen, covered in tattoos. They admitted violent crimes.
[38:02] Speaker 2: And I remember one of the chaplains that told me
[38:05] Speaker 2: there are third and fourth generation gang bangers in that prison.
[38:10] Speaker 2: Their grandfather, their great grandfather was a gang member.
[38:16] Speaker 1: You know.
[38:17] Speaker 2: On the other extreme, I used to go to the
[38:19] Speaker 2: Lompok Federal Penitentiary is about forty five minutes from my home,
[38:23] Speaker 2: and you know who was there for a time, the
[38:24] Speaker 2: Watergate criminals. I think Charles Coulson and Halderman Erlickman were
[38:28] Speaker 2: in the Loambo Penitentiary. My point is, trust me, wherever
[38:34] Speaker 2: you live within striking distance, there are the imprisoned, do
[38:39] Speaker 2: we visit, help them, intercede for them, And of course
[38:45] Speaker 2: not just those in federal penitentiaries, but people imprisoned by
[38:50] Speaker 2: their illness, imprisoned in their loneliness.
[38:53] Speaker 1: We know imprisoned people all around us. Do we visit them? Relatedly,
[38:59] Speaker 1: visit sick?
[39:00] Speaker 2: You know, all kinds of people we know right right
[39:03] Speaker 2: around us who are sick, empowered by the cross, become.
[39:08] Speaker 1: A witness of mercy. The last one I think of
[39:12] Speaker 1: my dear father, bury the dead.
[39:15] Speaker 2: My father is a good irishman and went to a
[39:17] Speaker 2: lot of wakes, and when he would come home from
[39:20] Speaker 2: the wake, he would almost invariably say we were little kids.
[39:23] Speaker 2: He would say, corporal work of mercy. And I think
[39:26] Speaker 2: it's the first time I heard the term corporal work
[39:29] Speaker 2: of mercy. He must have learned that in Catholic grade school.
[39:32] Speaker 2: But it got deep into his heart that when you
[39:34] Speaker 2: went to a wake, what were you doing? You were
[39:36] Speaker 2: helping to bury the dead. Yep, that's a work of mercy.
[39:40] Speaker 2: Can we follow up though? We all know people who've.
[39:44] Speaker 1: Recently lost a loved one. Can we help them continue.
[39:48] Speaker 2: That process of burying the dead with our carrying visits
[39:52] Speaker 2: and our concern. So those are the seven corporal works
[39:56] Speaker 2: of mercy. That's what witnesses do, people that believe.
[40:01] Speaker 1: In the power of the Cross.
[40:03] Speaker 2: Now close with this a little reflection on the spiritual
[40:07] Speaker 2: works of mercy. First one, counsel the doubtful. Listen, everybody,
[40:15] Speaker 2: we're going through a crisis right now of young people
[40:18] Speaker 2: disaffiliating from our church.
[40:20] Speaker 1: We know that. I've talked about it a lot. What
[40:24] Speaker 1: do you hear from them?
[40:25] Speaker 2: Time and again. I never had my questions answered. I
[40:31] Speaker 2: had a lot of doubts about religion. You know, it
[40:33] Speaker 2: seems to be at oddsma science, and it seems like
[40:36] Speaker 2: a lot of nonsense.
[40:37] Speaker 1: And I asked questions and no one had answers. And
[40:40] Speaker 1: I think, you know, they're not lying about that. That
[40:43] Speaker 1: was a real failure of our church, that we were
[40:45] Speaker 1: not there.
[40:46] Speaker 2: To perform a work of mercy, which indeed it is
[40:50] Speaker 2: to counsel the doubtful. People are wrestling with the great
[40:53] Speaker 2: questions and we're not there as elders in.
[40:55] Speaker 1: The community to help them. That's failing in a work
[40:59] Speaker 1: of mercy.
[41:00] Speaker 2: See relatedly, the second one is instruct the ignorance. I
[41:05] Speaker 2: tell my students at Mandoline. Now that's what I do
[41:08] Speaker 2: as your teacher. They never really cared for them.
[41:14] Speaker 1: But you know, I love the fact that this is
[41:16] Speaker 1: seen properly as a work of mercy. You know that wonderful.
[41:21] Speaker 1: Any teacher in the room knows this. When you.
[41:25] Speaker 2: Present something in such a way that someone's mind and
[41:29] Speaker 2: heart open up and you teach them physics or chemistry
[41:33] Speaker 2: or history or whatever it is. But when you instruct
[41:36] Speaker 2: the ignorance, you open their minds and hearts to the
[41:40] Speaker 2: world of value, epistemic value, esthetic value, moral value.
[41:46] Speaker 1: That's a work of mercy.
[41:48] Speaker 2: That's a work of mercy because one thing that God's
[41:51] Speaker 2: love conquers is the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of
[41:54] Speaker 2: self absorption.
[41:56] Speaker 1: And when you, as a teacher, either formally or informally,
[41:59] Speaker 1: can open that up, you bet that's a work of mercy.
[42:04] Speaker 1: Third One, admonish sinners. That's something witnesses do.
[42:14] Speaker 2: Ammonial and Latin means to warn right, To admonish a sinners,
[42:19] Speaker 2: to warn a sinner. It's a work of mercy, isn't it.
[42:23] Speaker 2: Someone's heading toward a cliff and we don't say a thing.
[42:28] Speaker 1: Shame on us.
[42:31] Speaker 2: Everyone in this room, myself included, we know people who've
[42:34] Speaker 2: been going down a very negative path of self destruction.
[42:39] Speaker 1: And if we and again, fellow sinners in this room,
[42:43] Speaker 1: we love this approach to sit in judgment, you know,
[42:47] Speaker 1: like the church lady, we sit in judgment on sinners
[42:51] Speaker 1: to admonish sinners. It's not that it's not judgment that's
[42:55] Speaker 1: cheap and easy.
[42:57] Speaker 2: Admonishing a sinner is getting down into the into the
[43:01] Speaker 2: muck and the mud of someone's dysfunction and be willing
[43:04] Speaker 2: to walk with them, not just to scold them from
[43:08] Speaker 2: a distance, but to warn them and to walk with them,
[43:12] Speaker 2: get them backed away from the cliff, whether it's forms
[43:15] Speaker 2: of addiction, whether it's types of sin.
[43:18] Speaker 1: And may I say this everybody in a kind of
[43:21] Speaker 1: a self reproach.
[43:23] Speaker 2: One of the many faces of the worst crisis in
[43:26] Speaker 2: the history of the American Church, namely the clergy sex
[43:29] Speaker 2: abuse crisis, is a failure in this and as priests
[43:34] Speaker 2: have to bear a lot of the responsibility, bishops too,
[43:37] Speaker 2: a failure to admonish sinners.
[43:41] Speaker 1: Did we see things and look the other way? Did
[43:44] Speaker 1: we see things and not warn?
[43:46] Speaker 2: So that's a work of mercy, that's not being judgmental,
[43:50] Speaker 2: It's a work of mercy when you warn a sinner.
[43:53] Speaker 2: I bet everybody in this room right now can think
[43:55] Speaker 2: of somebody that you know who's who's hurtling down a
[43:59] Speaker 2: very bad path.
[44:02] Speaker 1: What's the merciful thing to do? Relatedly, forth work of
[44:07] Speaker 1: spiritual work of mercy forgive wrongs? Gosh, how central.
[44:14] Speaker 2: To the teaching of Jesus forgiveness was forgive us our
[44:17] Speaker 2: trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Every
[44:24] Speaker 2: one in this room, I'd be willing to wager, every
[44:26] Speaker 2: single person, myself included, there's somebody that we need to forgive,
[44:30] Speaker 2: and we can't bring ourselves to do it right. There's
[44:34] Speaker 2: some wrong that was done to us, and we're still
[44:37] Speaker 2: nursing it, we're still kind of quasi enjoying it, and
[44:42] Speaker 2: we're still still holding a grudge against the person that
[44:45] Speaker 2: caused it. How much human suffering is caused by this
[44:50] Speaker 2: failure in mercy. That's what forgiveness is.
[44:53] Speaker 1: It's not justice.
[44:55] Speaker 2: See justice is just kind of eye for an eye,
[44:58] Speaker 2: you know, let's get the thing correctly balanced again.
[45:02] Speaker 1: That's justice.
[45:03] Speaker 2: But see, mercy mocks justice. The Letter of James says, right,
[45:09] Speaker 2: a work of mercy is to go beyond justice.
[45:13] Speaker 1: Think of someone right now that you need to forgive.
[45:16] Speaker 1: Do it as a work of mercy. Fifth, comfort the
[45:22] Speaker 1: afflicted in a way. Boy, that's maybe the easiest one,
[45:26] Speaker 1: because there's so much affliction right all around us. Physical affliction,
[45:32] Speaker 1: psychological affliction, spiritual affliction, financial affliction.
[45:37] Speaker 2: They're afflicted people everywhere. Do we take the time to
[45:41] Speaker 2: comfort them. That's a work of mercy. That's what witnesses
[45:47] Speaker 2: to the risen Christ do. Last two, here's really my
[45:52] Speaker 2: favorite of the spiritual works of mercy.
[45:54] Speaker 1: I think about it a lot.
[45:56] Speaker 2: Bear patiently. The troublesome. There are a lot of troublesome
[46:03] Speaker 2: people right There are a lot of, let me give
[46:07] Speaker 2: you another word, annoying people. Whether you're on an airplane
[46:14] Speaker 2: and someone's talking too much and annoying you, or whatever
[46:17] Speaker 2: it is, there are plenty of annoying people around. There's
[46:21] Speaker 2: a line from jose Mariaskriva I've always loved He said,
[46:26] Speaker 2: instead of saying, Gosh, that person's annoying me, you should say, gosh,
[46:31] Speaker 2: that person is sanctifying me.
[46:34] Speaker 1: Right, that for some reason the Lord has sent this.
[46:39] Speaker 2: Troublesome person to call forth from me greater patience and
[46:45] Speaker 2: greater love. And maybe what I'm finding so annoying is
[46:50] Speaker 2: something wrong in me right, that needs correction, that needs improvement.
[46:58] Speaker 2: Don't miss the opportunity of being sanctified by annoying people.
[47:04] Speaker 2: Rather see it as an act of mercy. And again,
[47:08] Speaker 2: every day this is easy one to find.
[47:11] Speaker 1: Right every day, last one pray for the living and
[47:17] Speaker 1: the dead. Now, can I just give one little angle.
[47:19] Speaker 2: Maybe we haven't thought about enough about the crisis of
[47:23] Speaker 2: people staying away from Mass.
[47:25] Speaker 1: So I've said, and I stand by it, it's a.
[47:28] Speaker 2: Spiritual disaster when you stay away from the source in
[47:33] Speaker 2: someone of the Christian life, when you regularly stay away
[47:37] Speaker 2: from a connection to God. When you say I don't
[47:42] Speaker 2: care about the Mass anymore, is that bad for you? Yes,
[47:46] Speaker 2: it's very bad for you. But with this in mind,
[47:52] Speaker 2: staying away from Mass, which is the greatest form of prayer,
[47:57] Speaker 2: is a failure to do a work of mercy.
[48:01] Speaker 1: Maybe the Mass is not primarily for you. Maybe you're
[48:05] Speaker 1: going to Mass is for the sake of the person.
[48:08] Speaker 2: That you are praying for at that Mass, a living person, sure,
[48:16] Speaker 2: or maybe someone that's dying, and that your attendance at
[48:21] Speaker 2: Mass and your prayer.
[48:22] Speaker 1: At Mass is benefiting both the living and the dead.
[48:26] Speaker 2: Therefore, when you stay away from mass, you're failing in
[48:33] Speaker 2: this great work of mercy to pray. Remember lying from
[48:38] Speaker 2: merton seventh story Mountain, I've never forgotten. As a young kid,
[48:42] Speaker 2: he's exploring these ruins of medieval monasteries in the south
[48:46] Speaker 2: of France, and he's kind of exulting on how mournfully
[48:50] Speaker 2: beautiful they are. But then he says, of course, he's
[48:53] Speaker 2: writing from within the walls of a Trappist monastery. He said,
[48:57] Speaker 2: I wonder now how many of those medieval monks prayed
[49:02] Speaker 2: me where I am today. And it's a beautiful line,
[49:07] Speaker 2: and I've never forgotten.
[49:07] Speaker 1: Since I read it. But it speaks to this that
[49:11] Speaker 1: the prayers.
[49:12] Speaker 2: We offer now, who knows the effects they're having, maybe
[49:17] Speaker 2: long after we're gone. But staying away from prayer, that's
[49:24] Speaker 2: a failure in mercy. I remember when I was at
[49:28] Speaker 2: Monday Line and students would come to me and say, oh, Father,
[49:30] Speaker 2: I'm finding praying the office, you know it, it's so difficult.
[49:33] Speaker 1: I'm not getting anything out of it. I say, I
[49:35] Speaker 1: don't care. I don't care.
[49:37] Speaker 2: If you're not getting something, you're not praying for yourself
[49:40] Speaker 2: primarily when you open up that office.
[49:43] Speaker 1: As a priest, you're praying for the church. You know
[49:47] Speaker 1: that wonderful, mournful.
[49:50] Speaker 2: Psalm we pray at night prayer every Friday, and it's
[49:54] Speaker 2: the most despairing song about someone that's just lost in
[49:59] Speaker 2: friendly Listen.
[50:00] Speaker 1: They feel like they're lying among the dead and their
[50:03] Speaker 1: only companion is darkness. It's just terribly dark psalm.
[50:08] Speaker 2: And years ago a very wise teacher said to me,
[50:11] Speaker 2: when you're praying that psalm, maybe you don't feel that way,
[50:16] Speaker 2: but trust me, somebody right now in the body of
[50:19] Speaker 2: Christ feels exactly that way.
[50:22] Speaker 1: And you're praying for him or you're praying for her.
[50:26] Speaker 1: To pray for the living and the dead, everybody.
[50:29] Speaker 2: That's not something trivial, not just having nice thoughts about someone.
[50:33] Speaker 2: That's a work of mercy. Okay, So what a witnesses
[50:38] Speaker 2: to this cross do.
[50:42] Speaker 1: I'm a successor of the Apostles as a bishop, that's
[50:46] Speaker 1: the title that moves me the most. As a bishop,
[50:50] Speaker 1: I'm a successor of the Apostles. When we were sitting
[50:53] Speaker 1: in the synod, we were.
[50:55] Speaker 2: In the Paul the sixth audience Hall, which is just
[50:58] Speaker 2: south of the Bernie Colonnade just south of the Basilica.
[51:02] Speaker 1: You know what stood there in the first century was
[51:06] Speaker 1: the circus of Nero, and that's where Peter was put
[51:09] Speaker 1: to death. He was crucified there, legend says upside down.
[51:15] Speaker 2: And you only obelisk which stands now in the center
[51:18] Speaker 2: of Saint Peter's Square, that was in the circus of Nero.
[51:25] Speaker 1: Likely it's one of the very last things Saint Peter's saw.
[51:29] Speaker 1: The witness, the witness.
[51:33] Speaker 2: Who saw Jesus die, saw him risen from the dead,
[51:37] Speaker 2: and then bequeathed that great witness to the world. And
[51:41] Speaker 2: it's carried all the way down over twenty centuries to Orlando, Florida.
[51:46] Speaker 2: And this gold cross, which is a sign that God's
[51:50] Speaker 2: mercy is more powerful than anything in the world.
[51:53] Speaker 1: And there's the program. Everybody to join Jesus Army is
[51:58] Speaker 1: to do the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. So
[52:02] Speaker 1: let's get to it. God bless you all. H

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