# Everything in This World Passes Away - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 26 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73038749/everything_in_this_world_passes_away_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Basically with you friends, were continuing our reading of the
[0:03] Speaker 1: sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. And we're in
[0:05] Speaker 1: the midst of this great eucharistic revival in our country.
[0:08] Speaker 1: So it's important for us to attend to these passages
[0:12] Speaker 1: from John six because each one is telling us something
[0:15] Speaker 1: very important about this most central of the sacraments. I
[0:19] Speaker 1: want to share with you a couple of lines from
[0:21] Speaker 1: our Gospel for today which names something that is so
[0:25] Speaker 1: basic in the spiritual life. So Jesus has just done
[0:28] Speaker 1: the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, and the people
[0:30] Speaker 1: now are looking for him, and they've crossed the sea,
[0:34] Speaker 1: and they say this, Rabbi, when did you get here.
[0:39] Speaker 1: Jesus answered them and said, amen, Amen, I say to you,
[0:42] Speaker 1: you were looking for me, not because you saw signs,
[0:45] Speaker 1: but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do
[0:49] Speaker 1: not work for food the perishes, but for the food
[0:53] Speaker 1: that endures for eternal life. So they were satisfied at
[0:59] Speaker 1: the physical life, and now they're looking for more of that. Again,
[1:04] Speaker 1: do not work for food that perishes, but for the
[1:09] Speaker 1: food that endures for eternal life. In many ways, everybody,
[1:15] Speaker 1: the whole spiritual life, hinges on this statement, it's exceptionally
[1:22] Speaker 1: difficult to live in this space, and much of the
[1:26] Speaker 1: drama of our human lives comes from this tension. To
[1:30] Speaker 1: be honest with you, much of the drama within the
[1:33] Speaker 1: literature and art of the world comes from this tension.
[1:38] Speaker 1: So what does he mean? Can I begin with a
[1:41] Speaker 1: perhaps peculiar image. I might have shared this with you before,
[1:44] Speaker 1: but it always comes to my mind when I read this.
[1:47] Speaker 1: Taar de Chardin was a twentyth century French Catholic theologian,
[1:52] Speaker 1: and he reflected upon the fact that when he was
[1:54] Speaker 1: about four years old, so old enough to remember, it
[1:58] Speaker 1: was the custom at that time for even young boys
[2:01] Speaker 1: they'd let their hair grow very long, and then around
[2:04] Speaker 1: the age of four they'd give them their first haircut. Right, so,
[2:08] Speaker 1: he remembers his mother putting him near the fireplace, and
[2:11] Speaker 1: then she began to cut the locks of his hair,
[2:15] Speaker 1: and to his horror, he said, he looked down and
[2:18] Speaker 1: saw one of the locks of hair, a curl of
[2:22] Speaker 1: his hair, fall near the fire and.
[2:27] Speaker 2: Like that be consumed.
[2:29] Speaker 1: And it horrified it because he thought, well, here's something
[2:33] Speaker 1: that was part of me, that this is part of
[2:35] Speaker 1: my body, and like that, it even esses like that
[2:41] Speaker 1: it disappears.
[2:44] Speaker 2: Is he that fragile.
[2:46] Speaker 1: Even as a four year old? That's what occurred to
[2:48] Speaker 1: tahark and Sardan. And in many ways you could read
[2:50] Speaker 1: his work, his theological work, as an attempt to find
[2:55] Speaker 1: what doesn't pass away. But here's the kind of to
[3:00] Speaker 1: be honest, grim truth. I'll state it bluntly. Everything in
[3:07] Speaker 1: this world passes away.
[3:11] Speaker 2: No exception.
[3:13] Speaker 1: Everything in this world ultimately is like that little lock
[3:17] Speaker 1: of hair that's just consumed by fire. One of the
[3:21] Speaker 1: things that we work for, well, we spend a lot
[3:25] Speaker 1: of our time working for these passing, evenescent goods of
[3:30] Speaker 1: the world, only to find that when they, as they
[3:35] Speaker 1: inevitably will, fade away, we find ourselves frustrated. I'm gonna
[3:41] Speaker 1: give you just, you know, a couple of examples. So
[3:45] Speaker 1: we begin with the image of food. They were satisfied,
[3:48] Speaker 1: and now they're looking for more food that will satisfy them.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Think of the best meal you've ever had. You go
[3:56] Speaker 1: out to a restaurant and you just have this's the
[3:58] Speaker 1: your favorite food, and you've eaten.
[3:59] Speaker 2: So much, how much of it you're just filled. You said,
[4:03] Speaker 2: I'm never going to eat again.
[4:07] Speaker 1: Well, within a few hours you're hungry again, no matter
[4:10] Speaker 1: how good that meal was, how satisfying it was, you know,
[4:13] Speaker 1: just the other days I record these words. It's not
[4:15] Speaker 1: too long after the fourth of July, and Doug Cummins,
[4:18] Speaker 1: our producer, had us over to his house for a
[4:21] Speaker 1: picnic and with his family. And I had a Burger cheeseburger,
[4:25] Speaker 1: I had a hot dog, I had watermelon.
[4:28] Speaker 2: I had a piece of cake.
[4:29] Speaker 1: You know, I had a big fourth of July banquet.
[4:33] Speaker 1: And at the end of that I felt that way, like,
[4:36] Speaker 1: all right, I will never eat another bite of food.
[4:39] Speaker 1: And I think that night, indeed I didn't have any dinner.
[4:41] Speaker 1: I was still so full. But the next morning, reliably,
[4:46] Speaker 1: I was hungry again. The food of this world doesn't totally,
[4:52] Speaker 1: ultimately finally satisfy us, of course not.
[4:56] Speaker 2: You know, we worked for a home boy.
[5:00] Speaker 1: I'm investing a lot of my money in this house,
[5:02] Speaker 1: and that's my dream house.
[5:04] Speaker 2: That's the house I want it. I love it.
[5:06] Speaker 1: It's got everything I want, and I enjoy it. But
[5:10] Speaker 1: what inevitably happens. Any homeowner will tell you it begins
[5:14] Speaker 1: to fall apart, begins to wear out.
[5:16] Speaker 2: It's got to be painted again. The roof's got to
[5:18] Speaker 2: be fixed.
[5:19] Speaker 1: The deck out and back that gets run down, the
[5:22] Speaker 1: electricity starts failing. You got to repay the driveway. And
[5:26] Speaker 1: no matter how much you work on it, your dream house,
[5:28] Speaker 1: it keeps sort of falling apart. And eventually you'll sell
[5:33] Speaker 1: that house. Eventually somebody else will live in it. Eventually
[5:36] Speaker 1: it will be destroyed. I mean, I don't care how
[5:39] Speaker 1: great your house is.
[5:41] Speaker 2: It's passing. It doesn't last, it's even essent. Think of.
[5:49] Speaker 1: Entertainment, a want of to seek with great passion forms
[5:52] Speaker 1: of entertainment. I love, you know, a good baseball game.
[5:56] Speaker 1: Go to a baseball game and the sights and sounds
[5:58] Speaker 1: and smells of the stadium and the excitement of the game.
[6:01] Speaker 1: And I like to keep score when I go to
[6:03] Speaker 1: a baseball game, to keep my mind in the in
[6:05] Speaker 1: the activity, and I'm keeping track of it and I'm
[6:09] Speaker 1: involved in it.
[6:10] Speaker 2: And it's an exciting game.
[6:12] Speaker 1: Let's say, close game, and then your team wins at
[6:14] Speaker 1: the end, and what a great day at the ballpark?
[6:19] Speaker 1: Yeah okay, And then you go home and the stadium's
[6:23] Speaker 1: left behind with a lot of you know, junk up
[6:25] Speaker 1: in the stands. And then the next day your team
[6:28] Speaker 1: loses big and at the end of the season they
[6:30] Speaker 1: end up in fourth place or something.
[6:32] Speaker 2: So, yeah, you've sought this great entertainment.
[6:35] Speaker 1: Now maybe you've got higher taste and you want to
[6:37] Speaker 1: go to a high level concert and you listen to,
[6:40] Speaker 1: you know, a Beethoven violin concerto and it's just terrific.
[6:45] Speaker 2: You go here an opera singer singing.
[6:47] Speaker 1: One of the great arias, and you're just caught up
[6:49] Speaker 1: in the sheer beauty of it. But see, music especially
[6:53] Speaker 1: is interesting in this regard, and in fact, some musicians
[6:56] Speaker 1: have reflected upon this. Unlike, for example, a sculpe. Sure,
[7:00] Speaker 1: if you're Michelangelo and you sculpt the David at least
[7:03] Speaker 1: for a long time, David's going to be around music.
[7:08] Speaker 1: You play it and like that, it's gone. You finish
[7:12] Speaker 1: the whole concerto, the last note, and.
[7:16] Speaker 2: It fades away. It's gone.
[7:19] Speaker 1: So it goes everybody with all forms of entertainment. They
[7:23] Speaker 1: come and they go. You know, think even of things
[7:27] Speaker 1: like our relationships, our families are friendships. The people that
[7:32] Speaker 1: mean the most to us beautiful, Yeah, absolutely, they last forever.
[7:43] Speaker 1: Some of the greatest pain we experience in life comes
[7:47] Speaker 1: from the fact that the people we love the most.
[7:50] Speaker 1: They Eventually they get sick and they die. We'll get
[7:54] Speaker 1: sick and we'll die, every one of us, every one
[7:57] Speaker 1: of us without exception. Jesus speaks words here see that
[8:03] Speaker 1: are echoed by all the great spiritual masters.
[8:07] Speaker 2: We all want to be happy.
[8:09] Speaker 1: We all want to be happy, and so we seek
[8:12] Speaker 1: happiness in all these different ways. You know, one more
[8:16] Speaker 1: I was just thinking of. Honor is something that we
[8:18] Speaker 1: all seek, you know, to be recognized, to be appreciated,
[8:23] Speaker 1: and something I've been graced with in my life as
[8:25] Speaker 1: a number of honorary degrees.
[8:28] Speaker 2: You know, people will invite you to the.
[8:31] Speaker 1: University campus and they have dinner for you, and people
[8:33] Speaker 1: say all kinds of nice things, and the next day
[8:35] Speaker 1: you receive this diploma and everyone applauds and it's lovely.
[8:40] Speaker 1: You know, I'm the great moments beautiful, and then you know,
[8:44] Speaker 1: you put the diploma up on a wall. That moment
[8:49] Speaker 1: fades away, as they all do, and you might look
[8:52] Speaker 1: at the diploma and yeah, have a nice memory of
[8:54] Speaker 1: that day. But what do you find yourself, Well, that
[8:58] Speaker 1: didn't satisfy my desire.
[9:00] Speaker 2: That you left me.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Still feeling kind of empty and looking for more. So
[9:06] Speaker 1: it goes with everything in this world, so it goes.
[9:11] Speaker 1: Here's an image that always comes my mind too when
[9:14] Speaker 1: I talk about this and another Fourth of July image
[9:18] Speaker 1: fireworks that go off in the night sky and this
[9:21] Speaker 1: beautiful burst of light and color and harmony. You know,
[9:25] Speaker 1: when a really beautiful firework goes off.
[9:28] Speaker 2: Ooh ah, we love it. It is, It's gorgeous.
[9:32] Speaker 1: It's like a rose window in the sky, and like
[9:37] Speaker 1: that it disappears.
[9:40] Speaker 2: I don't know if you feel the way I love fireworks.
[9:43] Speaker 1: I always have, but I there's always a sadness attached
[9:48] Speaker 1: to them in my experience for that reason.
[9:52] Speaker 2: There it is and it's gone. Ah, look at that,
[9:56] Speaker 2: and it's gone. We'll see all of life. Everybody is
[10:00] Speaker 2: like that. It's like a firework that goes off. Beautiful.
[10:04] Speaker 1: Your relationships, your friendships, your honors, your pleasures, the best
[10:08] Speaker 1: meal you ever had, all your entertainments, everything, everything, everything
[10:12] Speaker 1: is like a burst of a firework. Okay, so what's
[10:18] Speaker 1: the answer. Well, the spiritual masters again, what language they
[10:23] Speaker 1: use again and again the language of attachment and detachment.
[10:30] Speaker 1: Do not become attached to these things, meaning that my
[10:36] Speaker 1: life is all about this, you know, everything to me
[10:40] Speaker 1: it's about honor, it's about pleasure of the flesh.
[10:44] Speaker 2: It's about success, it's about power.
[10:50] Speaker 1: Don't attach yourself to these things because they will fade
[10:53] Speaker 1: away and they will disappoint you. Rather cultivate an attitude
[10:57] Speaker 1: of detachment, which means now listen, which means you can
[11:02] Speaker 1: appreciate all these things, and you should. Baseball game terrific.
[11:08] Speaker 1: Go love it, give yourself to it. Get lost in
[11:11] Speaker 1: it that the fourth of July burgers and hot thogs.
[11:15] Speaker 1: Enjoy them the honorary degree terrific. Go take it in,
[11:21] Speaker 1: enjoy it, but don't cling to any of them. Realize
[11:30] Speaker 1: the fourth of July firework, they come and they go. Now,
[11:37] Speaker 1: what should you search for? Don't seek these foods that
[11:43] Speaker 1: pass away, but rather work for the food that endures
[11:48] Speaker 1: for eternal life.
[11:51] Speaker 2: What's that Christ? Christ? What's she going to give them? Now?
[11:59] Speaker 1: Is we can continue reading John chapter six. He's going
[12:03] Speaker 1: to give himself as the bread of life. I myself
[12:09] Speaker 1: am the bread come down from Heaven. Mind you, not
[12:14] Speaker 1: any of the bread of this earth. Everything in this
[12:17] Speaker 1: world fades away. But I want to give you this
[12:21] Speaker 1: bread that comes down from Heaven. Order your whole life
[12:27] Speaker 1: to Christ. He doesn't fade away. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today.
[12:35] Speaker 2: And forever.
[12:39] Speaker 1: And then in light of that fundamental love order all
[12:45] Speaker 1: the other loves and interests of your life. Does that
[12:48] Speaker 1: make sense. That's it, everybody. That's if you want the
[12:51] Speaker 1: whole spiritual life. Augustine said, love God, then love everything
[12:59] Speaker 1: else for the sake of On. So, whether it's it's
[13:03] Speaker 1: the ballgame, it's it's a meal, it's it's a it's
[13:06] Speaker 1: a violin concerto, it's a friendship, it's anything in this world,
[13:10] Speaker 1: love it, sure, love it. We're not puritans. Love it,
[13:14] Speaker 1: savor it, but don't attach yourself.
[13:16] Speaker 2: To any of it.
[13:20] Speaker 1: Look for the bread that that lasts unto eternal life.
[13:24] Speaker 1: And then, in an attitude of detachment, love everything else
[13:29] Speaker 1: for the sake of Christ.
[13:32] Speaker 2: And God bless you.

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