# You Can’t Grasp—or Hide From—God - Bishop Barron Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 10 Oct 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75633284/utf_8_q_you_can_e2_80_99t_grasp_e2_80_94or_hide_from_e2_80_94god_utf_8_q_bishop_barron_sunday_sermon_mp3.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the third
[0:02] Speaker 1: Sunday of Lent and we have an extraordinary privilege during
[0:06] Speaker 1: the sea cycle to read this account in the third
[0:09] Speaker 1: chapter of the book of Exodus of Moses' encounter with
[0:12] Speaker 1: the burning bush. It's one of the pivotal texts in
[0:16] Speaker 1: all of scripture. So much of our great tradition refers
[0:20] Speaker 1: to it, flows from it. It sheds light in every direction.
[0:25] Speaker 1: So I want to just kind of walk through this
[0:27] Speaker 1: text with you. Could I encourage you, when you have
[0:29] Speaker 1: a chance, open your Bibles, Exodus chapter 3, and find
[0:32] Speaker 1: this passage. Moses in the burning bush is telling us
[0:35] Speaker 1: so much about God, about the spiritual life, about our
[0:39] Speaker 1: relationship to the Lord. So all that's there. So we
[0:43] Speaker 1: notice first, Moses tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
[0:48] Speaker 1: and he's out in the desert. Now we know, from
[0:53] Speaker 1: the book of Exodus. It's told in the typical laconicism
[0:56] Speaker 1: of the Bible. In a few, you know, elegant strokes,
[0:59] Speaker 1: you get a sense of the character of somebody. Moses
[1:01] Speaker 1: was raised, indeed, as a prince of Egypt. We don't
[1:05] Speaker 1: quite have to go to the whole Cecil B. DeMille
[1:07] Speaker 1: route to imagine this, but he was raised in the,
[1:10] Speaker 1: you know, courts of the pharaoh of Egypt, so a
[1:12] Speaker 1: very high-level, sophisticated man. He also knows that his background
[1:16] Speaker 1: is Hebrew, and one day he sees this Hebrew man
[1:19] Speaker 1: being mistreated. And very impulsively, he kills the man who's
[1:23] Speaker 1: mistreating him and buries him. Then finds out, oh, people
[1:26] Speaker 1: know about this. And so he flees the country. Now,
[1:29] Speaker 1: what do we learn in those few little deft strokes? Well,
[1:33] Speaker 1: this kind of high ranking, high level aristocrat, impulsive, he
[1:37] Speaker 1: gets what he wants when he wants it. And that
[1:39] Speaker 1: got him in trouble. And then impulsively, he leaves the country.
[1:43] Speaker 1: And then he has to go through, and this is
[1:45] Speaker 1: so typical of the Bible, almost all the great heroes
[1:49] Speaker 1: of the Bible. He has to go through a time
[1:52] Speaker 1: of testing and trial in the desert. It's one reason
[1:57] Speaker 1: why I think we read this during Lent. So during
[1:59] Speaker 1: these desert weeks, as we prepare for Easter, we look
[2:03] Speaker 1: at this desert figure. You see, before you can deal
[2:08] Speaker 1: properly with God, you have to be purged properly. of
[2:12] Speaker 1: certain things in your own psyche, ego, soul. Certain things
[2:18] Speaker 1: have to fall away before you're ready for an encounter
[2:22] Speaker 1: with God. Was God with Moses all his life? Of course,
[2:26] Speaker 1: but Moses wasn't ready to see him until he'd gone
[2:31] Speaker 1: through the chastening of the desert when things fell away,
[2:37] Speaker 1: when props that he'd been using fell away, and he's
[2:41] Speaker 1: ready for the encounter. Now, here's how it happens. While
[2:44] Speaker 1: he's there in the desert leading his flock, the prince
[2:46] Speaker 1: having become a simple shepherd, there an angel of the
[2:50] Speaker 1: Lord appeared to Moses in fire, flaming out of a bush.
[2:55] Speaker 1: He noticed that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. Well, flame, light,
[3:02] Speaker 1: is a typical symbol for God, right? Jesus says, I'm
[3:05] Speaker 1: the light of the world. God is what illumines things.
[3:08] Speaker 1: So that he appears in fiery form is not surprising.
[3:12] Speaker 1: What's really interesting about this is the bush is on fire,
[3:19] Speaker 1: but not consumed. The bush has become more vivid and
[3:24] Speaker 1: more brilliant, more luminous, more radiant, but it's not consumed.
[3:31] Speaker 1: As God comes close, it becomes a more beautiful version
[3:36] Speaker 1: of itself. There's a whole theology and spirituality behind this.
[3:41] Speaker 1: I've often said this to you. Go back to the
[3:44] Speaker 1: ancient myths, the Greeks and the Romans. When the gods
[3:47] Speaker 1: or goddesses appear in the world, it's like a catastrophe
[3:51] Speaker 1: because they're competitive with the world. Somebody's got to give
[3:55] Speaker 1: way for the gods to appear. But there's none of
[3:58] Speaker 1: that in the Bible. When God comes close, things are enhanced.
[4:06] Speaker 1: They become better. more beautifully themselves, if I can put
[4:10] Speaker 1: it that way. You know, listen to almost all the
[4:13] Speaker 1: modern philosophers. You'll hear some version of, well, if God
[4:17] Speaker 1: gets the glory, then it's going to be competing with
[4:19] Speaker 1: my freedom. I've got to be less if I give
[4:23] Speaker 1: glory to God. No, says the Bible. No to that.
[4:27] Speaker 1: The glory of God is a human being fully alive. Well, see,
[4:30] Speaker 1: you see that in this great image of the burning bush.
[4:35] Speaker 1: Now I'm going to come back to this when we
[4:36] Speaker 1: hear what God calls himself, but hang on. So Moses decided,
[4:42] Speaker 1: I must go over to look at this remarkable site
[4:45] Speaker 1: and see why the bush is not burned. Now, though
[4:48] Speaker 1: he's been chastened in the desert, though he's had these
[4:51] Speaker 1: years of preparation, can we still hear the overtones of
[4:56] Speaker 1: the old Moses here? Prince of Egypt. I must go
[5:00] Speaker 1: over and I must examine and I better find out
[5:03] Speaker 1: why this bush is not consumed. This is the kind
[5:06] Speaker 1: of aggressive probing. I'm in charge. I got to figure
[5:11] Speaker 1: this thing out. It never works that way, everybody, with
[5:16] Speaker 1: the Lord God. It can't. It can't. Because God, the
[5:20] Speaker 1: creator of all things, can never become the object of
[5:24] Speaker 1: our examinations. I'm a scientist, I put something on the table,
[5:28] Speaker 1: put a bright light on it, then I cut it
[5:30] Speaker 1: apart and I examine it. I question, I find out
[5:33] Speaker 1: on my terms. It never works that way with God.
[5:36] Speaker 1: It can't, it can't. So Moses, still his old self
[5:41] Speaker 1: to some degree, comes over. But now listen to what
[5:44] Speaker 1: the Lord says. When the Lord saw him coming over
[5:47] Speaker 1: to look more closely, he called out from the bush, Moses, Moses,
[5:52] Speaker 1: and Moses, here I am. But then listen, God said,
[5:57] Speaker 1: Come no nearer. Remove the sandals from your feet, for
[6:01] Speaker 1: the place where you stand is holy ground. Hey, Moses,
[6:07] Speaker 1: I'm here, and I'm here as this non-competitive enhancing presence. Yes,
[6:12] Speaker 1: all that beautiful thing is true. But you don't get
[6:15] Speaker 1: me on your terms. You're not the one asking the
[6:19] Speaker 1: questions here. You're not the one examining. Rather, take off
[6:23] Speaker 1: your sandals. Now, why? Well, If you're wearing sandals, you're
[6:27] Speaker 1: wearing shoes, you can walk anywhere you want with great confidence.
[6:32] Speaker 1: There's something about taking the sandals off that makes you
[6:36] Speaker 1: more vulnerable. You're not exploring the territory here. You're in
[6:43] Speaker 1: the presence of a power that you can't control. And
[6:47] Speaker 1: then the place where you stand is holy ground. What
[6:51] Speaker 1: does holy mean? In the Bible, it always means set apart.
[6:55] Speaker 1: It means... In its own space, it's like the holiness
[6:59] Speaker 1: of the tabernacle, the holiness of the temple. Holy, holy, holy,
[7:04] Speaker 1: Lord God of hosts, say the angels in Isaiah. Other, other, other.
[7:10] Speaker 1: You're in space here that you can't control. This is
[7:13] Speaker 1: not the world you're used to moving in, Moses. Then
[7:19] Speaker 1: God continues, listen. I'm the God of your fathers, the
[7:22] Speaker 1: God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Well, okay,
[7:27] Speaker 1: I've just heard that God is holy. God is other.
[7:29] Speaker 1: He can't be manipulated. Take your sandals off. All that's true.
[7:34] Speaker 1: But what else do I hear? This God knows my people.
[7:40] Speaker 1: And Moses, he's coming from the Hebrew people who were
[7:44] Speaker 1: miserable slaves in Egypt. They weren't world conquerors, the world beaters.
[7:48] Speaker 1: They weren't the high and mighty. On the contrary, they
[7:52] Speaker 1: were lowly people enslaved in Egypt. And yet, this one
[7:57] Speaker 1: speaking to me out of the burning bush knows them.
[8:01] Speaker 1: He knows them and their ancient history, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[8:07] Speaker 1: This God is incomparably close, even as he remains radically other. Huh. See,
[8:15] Speaker 1: now we're talking. Now we're getting into the space that
[8:20] Speaker 1: Christian theology talks about in regard to God. Watch this,
[8:25] Speaker 1: by the way, all through the Bible. God is that
[8:27] Speaker 1: which can be neither grasped nor hidden from. God can
[8:34] Speaker 1: be neither controlled nor avoided. He's not just up there,
[8:41] Speaker 1: I can't control him, nor is he just all around
[8:44] Speaker 1: here where I can manipulate him. He's somehow both those
[8:48] Speaker 1: things at the same time. And I can't do either
[8:54] Speaker 1: of these bad moves, manipulating him or running from him. Hmm.
[9:00] Speaker 1: The plot sickens, huh? Theologically. What we're talking about is
[9:04] Speaker 1: getting more and more mysterious. He goes on. I've witnessed
[9:10] Speaker 1: the affliction of my people in Egypt. I've heard their
[9:12] Speaker 1: cry of complaint against their slave drivers. I know well
[9:15] Speaker 1: that they're suffering. All right. Here's the intimate God again.
[9:19] Speaker 1: He knows their history. He knows their present. All right,
[9:24] Speaker 1: so Moses, understandably, is kind of being thrown off here.
[9:28] Speaker 1: You know, keep your distance, take off the sandals, holy ground,
[9:32] Speaker 1: and yet this God knows my name, he knows my people,
[9:35] Speaker 1: he knows their history. So, all right, thrown off balance again,
[9:41] Speaker 1: he dares to ask this God's name. If they ask me,
[9:47] Speaker 1: what is his name, what am I to tell them? Now,
[9:51] Speaker 1: you can say, all right, fair enough. It's an innocent
[9:54] Speaker 1: enough question. I've been addressed by a God out of
[9:58] Speaker 1: the burning bush. and I know lots of gods. There's
[10:01] Speaker 1: gods of this country and this country and this place
[10:04] Speaker 1: and that place and gods of mountains and rivers. Okay,
[10:08] Speaker 1: which one are you? In a way, it's a commonsensical question.
[10:15] Speaker 1: Here's the most famous line, arguably in the entire Old Testament.
[10:20] Speaker 1: When asked this question, God says, I am who I am.
[10:25] Speaker 1: I've often said, in one way, it's God saying, stop
[10:30] Speaker 1: asking stupid questions, right? God, the creator of all things,
[10:37] Speaker 1: who can be neither grasped nor hidden from. God, who
[10:40] Speaker 1: is not one more item in the world. See, if
[10:43] Speaker 1: I ask your name, what's your name? Well, you'll tell
[10:45] Speaker 1: me something that distinguishes you from every other human being.
[10:49] Speaker 1: You'll give me your history that makes you unique. I
[10:52] Speaker 1: am a scientist. Well, what kind of rock is that? Well,
[10:55] Speaker 1: it's the rock with these properties, and that makes it
[10:57] Speaker 1: different than others. Or what planet is that? Well, that's Jupiter.
[11:00] Speaker 1: It's different than Saturn. That's the way our mind works.
[11:04] Speaker 1: We categorize and we analyze and differentiate. Not with God
[11:09] Speaker 1: we don't, though. What's your name? I don't have a
[11:15] Speaker 1: name in that conventional way. Because I'm not a particular
[11:20] Speaker 1: being among many. There's you and there's me and there's
[11:24] Speaker 1: God and there's the planet Jupiter. No, no, no, it
[11:26] Speaker 1: doesn't work that way. Because God is the creator of
[11:28] Speaker 1: all things. I am who I am. Put it in
[11:33] Speaker 1: the language of Thomas Aquinas, God is not a being
[11:36] Speaker 1: at all. Thomas says God is not even in the
[11:41] Speaker 1: genus of being. It's very interesting, isn't it? There's the genus,
[11:45] Speaker 1: the category of beings. Well, that would include Jupiter and
[11:49] Speaker 1: an angel and a rock and me and this podium, right?
[11:52] Speaker 1: They're all beings. Well, isn't God at least in that category?
[11:56] Speaker 1: Aquinas says no. Why? Because of this text. What's your name?
[12:03] Speaker 1: Which being are you? I'm not. I'm not one of
[12:05] Speaker 1: the beings in the world because I gave rise to
[12:09] Speaker 1: the whole world. I am who I am. Now, watch
[12:13] Speaker 1: in light of it. Why can God not be grasped? Well,
[12:18] Speaker 1: because he's not like anything in the world. Why can
[12:21] Speaker 1: God not be hidden from? Well, because he's in and
[12:25] Speaker 1: through all things as their creator. He's both, here's Augustine,
[12:30] Speaker 1: superior sumo meo, higher than anything I can imagine, and intimeo,
[12:36] Speaker 1: closer to me than I am to myself. At the
[12:38] Speaker 1: same time, at the same time, stop grasping, stop hiding,
[12:45] Speaker 1: And open your heart and your mind to this great mystery.
[12:51] Speaker 1: I am who I am. Can you see, everybody, why
[12:54] Speaker 1: Moses needed the discipline of the desert before he could
[12:58] Speaker 1: be ready for this vision? Because in our sin, we're
[13:02] Speaker 1: going to always do one of those two things. Grasping,
[13:06] Speaker 1: I'm going to try to manipulate God, or I'm going
[13:08] Speaker 1: to hide from God. You can't do either one. Surrender
[13:15] Speaker 1: in faith and love to the one whose very nature
[13:19] Speaker 1: is to be, the one whose name is I am,
[13:24] Speaker 1: the one who you can't control, you can't hide from. Now,
[13:29] Speaker 1: when you move into that spiritual space, you're ready for mission.
[13:34] Speaker 1: You see, it's only then that God can send Moses
[13:38] Speaker 1: confidently on the mission to liberate his people. But he
[13:42] Speaker 1: needed that long lens of the desert in order to
[13:46] Speaker 1: bring him to the place where he could really understand
[13:49] Speaker 1: the God that he's dealing with. And God bless you.

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