# When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 3 Jul 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754539/when_your_faith_is_put_to_the_test_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. We come now to the
[0:02] Speaker 1: second Sunday of Lent, and we're on I call it
[0:06] Speaker 1: both dangerous and very holy ground because the Church is
[0:10] Speaker 1: giving us this reading from the twenty second chapter of Genesis.
[0:14] Speaker 1: The ancient Israelites referred to it as the ake Dah,
[0:16] Speaker 1: which means the binding. It's the binding of Isaac. So
[0:21] Speaker 1: he wasn't sacrificed, but Abraham was ready to sacrifice him.
[0:26] Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine another text in the Old Testament
[0:29] Speaker 1: that's more controversial, that stirred up more puzzlement and opposition.
[0:35] Speaker 1: And I'm with Sara and Kirkugar, the great philosopher who
[0:38] Speaker 1: writes a book called Fear and Trembling based upon this text.
[0:42] Speaker 1: His point was, if you don't experience fear and trembling
[0:45] Speaker 1: having read this text, you have not been paying attention.
[0:49] Speaker 1: If you read this in a kind of simplistic moralizing way,
[0:53] Speaker 1: or you pass it, pass it over because you've heard
[0:55] Speaker 1: a thousand times, you're not coming to grips with it.
[0:59] Speaker 1: I want to spend a lot of time because it's
[1:02] Speaker 1: naming something of absolute centrality in the spiritual life. Now
[1:07] Speaker 1: I think you remember the story. Listen, God put Abraham
[1:11] Speaker 1: to the test. He called to him, Abraham, here I am,
[1:14] Speaker 1: he replied. Then God said, take your son, Isaac, you're
[1:19] Speaker 1: only one whom you love, and go to the land
[1:24] Speaker 1: of Mariah, and there you shall offer him up as
[1:28] Speaker 1: a holocaust. Now fear and trembling, Why Abraham chosen by
[1:37] Speaker 1: the Lord. He hears the voice of the Lord, follows
[1:39] Speaker 1: him to the promised land, makes covenant with him. All
[1:42] Speaker 1: of that the Lord promises him through you know, a
[1:45] Speaker 1: son of yours, you'll become the father of great nations.
[1:49] Speaker 1: And you know the descendants will be greater than the
[1:51] Speaker 1: stars in the sky. All of that wonderful promise. Abraham
[1:55] Speaker 1: ages Ages Ages comes the age of ninety nine. And
[1:58] Speaker 1: he said, well, Lord, the houses ever gonna happen, And
[2:01] Speaker 1: the Lord makes it happen. And Abraham and Sarah I
[2:07] Speaker 1: have this son, Isaac. I mean any father loving his son,
[2:13] Speaker 1: of course, but intensify it, because here's the son, this
[2:17] Speaker 1: impossible son of his ancient old age. More to it,
[2:23] Speaker 1: the son through whom the great promise of God would
[2:27] Speaker 1: be fulfilled. I mean, could this child be any more
[2:31] Speaker 1: important to Abraham? And so the same God who called him,
[2:37] Speaker 1: the same God who made covenant with him. The same
[2:40] Speaker 1: God who allowed for the birth of Isaac says, and
[2:45] Speaker 1: notice pleads the language here as God speaks for Abraham,
[2:50] Speaker 1: take your son Isaac. Well, as if that's not enough,
[2:53] Speaker 1: was he say you're only one whom you love, rubbing
[3:01] Speaker 1: it in as it were, of how enormously important this
[3:06] Speaker 1: child is to you, and I want you to what
[3:11] Speaker 1: can you mention Abraham trying to take this in, what
[3:15] Speaker 1: to offer him up as a holocaust? That means a
[3:18] Speaker 1: burnt offering on a height that I will point out
[3:21] Speaker 1: to you. It's hard to imagine, just moving to the
[3:26] Speaker 1: psychological space of this scene, what it was like for
[3:32] Speaker 1: Abraham to hear those words. So not only are we
[3:35] Speaker 1: talking about an enormous personal crisis, this shockingly difficult family
[3:44] Speaker 1: personal crisis, but it appears for all the world that
[3:50] Speaker 1: God is at war with himself. There's a kind of
[3:54] Speaker 1: metaphysical dimension to Abraham's suffering here, because again, the same
[3:59] Speaker 1: God who said you're my man, I make a promise
[4:03] Speaker 1: to you. I made a covenant with you, and this
[4:06] Speaker 1: is the son through whom and he's your only one,
[4:10] Speaker 1: And now I want you to sacrifice that son to
[4:13] Speaker 1: me at the psychological level, undoubtedly, at the physical level,
[4:21] Speaker 1: at the familial level, even as I say, at the
[4:25] Speaker 1: metaphysical and religious level. It's hard to imagine someone going
[4:31] Speaker 1: through more of a crisis. So here's the question, and
[4:36] Speaker 1: it's in the mind of everybody's ever read this story.
[4:39] Speaker 1: Why in the world would God do this? Now? The
[4:45] Speaker 1: story has if you want a happy ending, right because Abraham,
[4:49] Speaker 1: all right, he's willing to obey the Lord, and he
[4:53] Speaker 1: walks with his son, and it's heartbreaking, right because the
[4:56] Speaker 1: son carrying the instruments of the sacrifice, the wood up
[5:01] Speaker 1: the mountain, and the son imagine you're a father of
[5:05] Speaker 1: a young kid, and well, well, here we are, here's
[5:07] Speaker 1: the place, and here's the wood for the sacricee. But father,
[5:10] Speaker 1: where's the offering? What was going through Abraham's heart and
[5:15] Speaker 1: mine at that point? And he says to him, I'm God.
[5:19] Speaker 1: God will provide. And then a kedah the binding. He
[5:23] Speaker 1: binds Isaac to the to the altar, raises the knife
[5:27] Speaker 1: to kill him. I mean, he's completely willing to go
[5:30] Speaker 1: through with it. And only then, right does the angel
[5:33] Speaker 1: stay his hand. And the Lord says, now I know
[5:36] Speaker 1: you know that you love and obey me. Can you
[5:40] Speaker 1: can you forgive people everyone up and down the ages
[5:44] Speaker 1: from biblical times through kir Kagar to our time, wondering
[5:50] Speaker 1: what are we dealing with here? This sounds like something
[5:54] Speaker 1: rather monstrous is going on. Okay, what we should not
[6:00] Speaker 1: do is psychologize this reading. What we should not do
[6:06] Speaker 1: is see it in primarily these sort of subjective psychological terms.
[6:12] Speaker 1: What we have here is something that you have a
[6:14] Speaker 1: lot of in the Bible. And let me state it
[6:17] Speaker 1: this way. The test, and remember that's how it begins.
[6:22] Speaker 1: God put Abraham to the test. What's the test? Do
[6:27] Speaker 1: you love God? Or do you love the benefits of God?
[6:35] Speaker 1: Let me say it again, that's the test. Do you
[6:38] Speaker 1: love God? Or do you love the benefits of God? So, God,
[6:45] Speaker 1: I mean, provides benefits for us all the time. The
[6:48] Speaker 1: fact that I exist, that I'm breathing, that I'm alive,
[6:51] Speaker 1: that's all a gift of God. Whatever success I've had
[6:57] Speaker 1: or whatever good things have happened to me, those are
[6:59] Speaker 1: benefits that have come to me from God. And that's wonderful.
[7:05] Speaker 1: But how do I love God? Do I love God
[7:09] Speaker 1: because of the good things he gives me? Or do
[7:14] Speaker 1: I love Him for his own sake. Do I love
[7:18] Speaker 1: the benefits that come to me from God's will? Or
[7:23] Speaker 1: do I love God's will? Now there's a link between
[7:29] Speaker 1: this story, a tight link, I think, and the story
[7:32] Speaker 1: at the beginning of the Book of Job. Do you
[7:34] Speaker 1: remember similarly Satan in the heavenly court, God says to him,
[7:39] Speaker 1: if you know it's my servant Job. I mean, I
[7:42] Speaker 1: know most people are wicked, but there's Job. He's he's
[7:45] Speaker 1: just upright, he's great, he's wonderful person. And Satan says
[7:49] Speaker 1: to him, well, yeah, because you've given him every good thing.
[7:53] Speaker 1: Job is successful as a big family. He's got nothing
[7:57] Speaker 1: but riches, and he's got fame, and he's he's well loved. Sure, Lord,
[8:01] Speaker 1: you've given him all these benefits. And so a test happens.
[8:08] Speaker 1: God gives Satan leave to take all of that away.
[8:13] Speaker 1: And at the heart of the Book of Job is
[8:16] Speaker 1: Job saying the Lord gives and the Lord takes away,
[8:23] Speaker 1: Blessed be the name of the Lord. Does he complain yeah,
[8:28] Speaker 1: and sufferer, yes. And that's all in the Book of Job.
[8:31] Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, Job witnesses to
[8:37] Speaker 1: the fact that he loves not the benefits of God,
[8:43] Speaker 1: but God you see the same thing everybody in the
[8:47] Speaker 1: spiritual tradition read someone like Saint John of the Cross.
[8:51] Speaker 1: When he talks about the dark Knight of the senses
[8:53] Speaker 1: and the dark Knight of the spirit, He's not talking
[8:56] Speaker 1: about depression. He's talking about the stripping away of all
[9:01] Speaker 1: those benefits that come to us, to the body and
[9:05] Speaker 1: to the soul. If I strip all those away, what
[9:09] Speaker 1: am I left with but God in himself? Do I
[9:15] Speaker 1: love the benefits of God? Or do I love God?
[9:20] Speaker 1: It's in some ways the central question of the spiritual
[9:23] Speaker 1: life in this world. Is this a tough road to walk? Yeah?
[9:29] Speaker 1: It is. It is because, as Job said and his
[9:32] Speaker 1: Abraham experience, the Lord gives and sometimes the Lord takes away. Now,
[9:41] Speaker 1: is God's ultimate purpose always the purpose of love? Yes? Yes,
[9:47] Speaker 1: God is love. Can we always see it clearly and
[9:53] Speaker 1: on our terms? No? Does the love of God always
[9:57] Speaker 1: correspond to benefits? But I can immediately appreciate No, And
[10:04] Speaker 1: that's the test. That's the test. Okay, Abraham on Mount Mariah,
[10:11] Speaker 1: Job on the dung heap right, having been stripped of
[10:15] Speaker 1: all these goods. One more image, Jesus on the cross.
[10:21] Speaker 1: What's he stripped of? On the cross, every possible benefit,
[10:27] Speaker 1: sensual pleasure. No, he's at the limit of suffering. Friendship,
[10:30] Speaker 1: His friends have all abandoned him. Honor, No, they're spitting
[10:34] Speaker 1: at him. Bodily well being. No, he's dying. He's like
[10:43] Speaker 1: Abraham on Mount Mariah. He's like Job on the dung heap,
[10:46] Speaker 1: Jesus nailed to the cross. And what was he saying? Father?
[10:52] Speaker 1: Forgive them? And Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.
[11:00] Speaker 1: What did he say? And gets some many when he
[11:02] Speaker 1: entered into this time of suffering? Not my will? Your will?
[11:08] Speaker 1: Do you love the benefits of God? Or do you
[11:12] Speaker 1: love God? Sometimes I'll use this language now of the
[11:17] Speaker 1: Book of Genesis. Sometimes that's the test. When all's going
[11:24] Speaker 1: well and I'm just basking in benefits, Maybe it's not
[11:30] Speaker 1: clear in the depth of my own soul. Am I
[11:34] Speaker 1: loving these? Or am I loving God for his own sake? Now?
[11:39] Speaker 1: Just one quick glance, because the church connects that awful story,
[11:44] Speaker 1: and I mean awful in that rich sense of the word.
[11:46] Speaker 1: It's an awe inspiring story as well as being awful
[11:50] Speaker 1: in the more conventional sense. It links into Mark's account
[11:54] Speaker 1: of the transfiguration. What happens now on Mount table out
[12:00] Speaker 1: of transfiguration Peter, James, and John, in the midst of
[12:03] Speaker 1: all the struggles of their ministry, they see Jesus metamorphosed.
[12:10] Speaker 1: That's what the Greek says, literally transfigured, dazzlingly bright, the
[12:19] Speaker 1: glory of the Lord revealed. See, that's the will of
[12:25] Speaker 1: God that we love, even when we can't see it.
[12:29] Speaker 1: What they're given is a glimpse in this life of
[12:33] Speaker 1: that glory. We're meant to fall in love with God
[12:36] Speaker 1: in himself, even when we can't see the glory, even
[12:42] Speaker 1: when the benefits are taken from us. I know it's
[12:46] Speaker 1: hard stuff, everybody. This is very high octane spirituality. But
[12:53] Speaker 1: lend is precisely the time when we put ourselves to
[12:57] Speaker 1: that test, when we ask our selves that question, do
[13:02] Speaker 1: I love the benefits of God? Or do I love God?
[13:08] Speaker 1: Thank God, bless you.

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