# Bishop Barron's Sermon - Why Do You Have Everything but Still Feel Unhappy

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 26 Sep 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75250071/bishop_barron_s_sermon_why_do_you_have_everything_but_still_feel_unhappy.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, we come today to one
[0:03] Speaker 1: of my favorite feasts, this Feast of the Epiphany. What
[0:06] Speaker 1: is it about this story of the kings, the magi,
[0:09] Speaker 1: the wise men that has so captivated us? I mean,
[0:12] Speaker 1: for the past 20 centuries, poets and painters and sculptors
[0:17] Speaker 1: and mystics have been fascinated by this story. The whole
[0:21] Speaker 1: Cologne Cathedral in Germany, you know, it's sort of predicated
[0:24] Speaker 1: upon the three wise men. They claim the relics of
[0:26] Speaker 1: them are there. What is it? What is it? Why
[0:29] Speaker 1: is the story so entrancing? Well, I think in some
[0:33] Speaker 1: ways it's telling the whole spiritual life. You could read
[0:37] Speaker 1: the dynamics of the spiritual life off of the story
[0:40] Speaker 1: very well. I want to just hit a couple of highlights. First,
[0:44] Speaker 1: I think this story of the Magi is all about
[0:47] Speaker 1: what I'll call the longing. You know, we desire all
[0:51] Speaker 1: kinds of things in life and we seek them and
[0:53] Speaker 1: we find them. But underneath all of our particular desires
[0:57] Speaker 1: and particular longings, there's this great longing, this ache of
[1:04] Speaker 1: the heart, this desire for, call it what you want, fulfillment,
[1:10] Speaker 1: for peace. C.S. Lewis called it joy, and he named
[1:16] Speaker 1: it every particular way. This longing that's awakened in us
[1:22] Speaker 1: at certain points in life when we're aware in a
[1:26] Speaker 1: kind of oblique way of what we want, but we
[1:30] Speaker 1: also know we'll never be able to attain it completely.
[1:34] Speaker 1: That unfulfillable longing, at least in this life, he called joy.
[1:42] Speaker 1: So it doesn't mean that superficial, you know, I'm happy
[1:44] Speaker 1: clappy because something nice happened to me. It's something weirder
[1:48] Speaker 1: and deeper and stranger. It's what Augustine talked about when
[1:51] Speaker 1: he said, Lord, you made us for yourself, and therefore
[1:54] Speaker 1: our heart is restless till it rests in thee. See,
[1:59] Speaker 1: it's permanently restless in this life. So even as we
[2:02] Speaker 1: glimpse what we want, we have a sense of what
[2:05] Speaker 1: the fulfillment is, we also know we're never going to
[2:07] Speaker 1: get there. So think of the magi now, astrologers, astronomers,
[2:14] Speaker 1: surveying the night sky, and they're looking with a scientific spirit,
[2:19] Speaker 1: that's true, but in the deeper way, they're looking for
[2:23] Speaker 1: God sign, for meaning? What is God trying to communicate? Well,
[2:29] Speaker 1: I just love this part of the story, and we
[2:32] Speaker 1: should never let go of that. It's one of the
[2:34] Speaker 1: most kind of precious and beautiful and rare things in life.
[2:39] Speaker 1: One of the many reasons I hate secularism is secularism
[2:44] Speaker 1: as an ideology is trying to stamp this out, trying
[2:48] Speaker 1: to convince us that there's nothing to it. It's a
[2:51] Speaker 1: holdover from the the primitive side of the primitive time
[2:56] Speaker 1: and the human development or something. Resist that, everybody. Resist
[3:00] Speaker 1: that with all your heart. Because it's what makes us
[3:05] Speaker 1: really human is this infinite longing, this deep ache of
[3:12] Speaker 1: the heart, this quest for God. Don't listen to the
[3:17] Speaker 1: avatars of secularism that want to suppress that. You know,
[3:23] Speaker 1: so the magi look and they long and they seek
[3:27] Speaker 1: and they find this enigmatic sign. You know, so the star. Well,
[3:34] Speaker 1: it's the star of the newborn king. Well, yeah, I guess.
[3:39] Speaker 1: I mean, it's not God in his fullness. It's an indication.
[3:44] Speaker 1: It's a beautiful but same time ambiguous indication. That's what
[3:50] Speaker 1: it's like, isn't it? in our quest for God, as
[3:53] Speaker 1: we get signs and hints. But they follow it. And
[3:59] Speaker 1: that's beautiful about them. That's beautiful. They don't suppress or
[4:02] Speaker 1: deny it. They follow this indication from God. And it
[4:08] Speaker 1: takes them over desert land. And as I said, all
[4:13] Speaker 1: travel in the ancient world was dangerous. A hard coming
[4:17] Speaker 1: we had of it. That's T.S. Eliot's great poem begins,
[4:21] Speaker 1: you know. the difficulty of the journey. And think if
[4:24] Speaker 1: someone asked them, well, what are you guys looking for?
[4:28] Speaker 1: Where are you going? Well, we're following a star to
[4:31] Speaker 1: find a newborn king. A bit like Noah building the ark.
[4:36] Speaker 1: And people, what are you doing? You're building a giant
[4:38] Speaker 1: ship in the middle of a desert. Well, the spiritual
[4:41] Speaker 1: life is often like that, isn't it? What are you doing?
[4:46] Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Why are you living this way?
[4:48] Speaker 1: I think of Many years ago, when I first became
[4:52] Speaker 1: a priest and you make this vow of celibacy and
[4:55] Speaker 1: of obedience and to live this religious life, there are
[4:59] Speaker 1: people then and now who would say, I don't get it.
[5:03] Speaker 1: I mean, what are you doing? Well, the spiritual life
[5:05] Speaker 1: is kind of like that because we're following this star,
[5:09] Speaker 1: this indication, this hint that the longing will be fulfilled
[5:14] Speaker 1: if we move in this direction. It's one of the
[5:17] Speaker 1: dynamics of the spiritual life. Okay, so far, everything I've
[5:22] Speaker 1: been talking about could be said really of anybody, of
[5:27] Speaker 1: any spiritual seeker. Go into any bookstore and go into
[5:31] Speaker 1: the spirituality section, and you'll find books about the human
[5:35] Speaker 1: aspiration for God, the longing for God. And I hope
[5:39] Speaker 1: you've got the sense. I'm not against that at all.
[5:41] Speaker 1: I think that's beautiful. It's one of the great things
[5:43] Speaker 1: about us. But now, now, here's the Christian difference. Christianity
[5:51] Speaker 1: is not just one more account of how we're longing
[5:55] Speaker 1: for this always elusive divinity. The Christian difference is the
[6:03] Speaker 1: one we seek has actually all along been seeking us
[6:12] Speaker 1: and in the fullness of time has come himself in person.
[6:20] Speaker 1: And you don't hear about that in other spiritual traditions.
[6:24] Speaker 1: You hear a lot about the longing, and that's terrific.
[6:26] Speaker 1: A lot about the quest, beautiful. I got to climb
[6:29] Speaker 1: the holy mountain. All right, great. But the difference is,
[6:34] Speaker 1: the one we are seeking has, from the beginning, even
[6:40] Speaker 1: more ardently been seeking us and has come in person
[6:48] Speaker 1: to meet us. That's what they find. The star, that's
[6:52] Speaker 1: an indicator, right? And in a way, the star can
[6:56] Speaker 1: be seen by anybody all over the world. So that's
[6:59] Speaker 1: evocative of the indicators of divinity. All right, all right, good.
[7:05] Speaker 1: But the story is not about the star. It's about
[7:08] Speaker 1: the baby. Because the baby is God coming in person
[7:13] Speaker 1: now to meet that deep longing of the heart so beautifully.
[7:19] Speaker 1: They were overjoyed, it says, upon seeing the child and
[7:23] Speaker 1: his mother, and then they prostrated themselves and did him homage.
[7:29] Speaker 1: I've said to you before, I think the master theme
[7:32] Speaker 1: of the Bible, arguably, is right praise. Sin is always
[7:39] Speaker 1: worshiping something other than God. When I make something less
[7:43] Speaker 1: than God into God, trouble follows as night follows day.
[7:47] Speaker 1: Take that to the bank spiritually. The Bible is trying
[7:50] Speaker 1: to bring us into the stance of right praise, that
[7:55] Speaker 1: we order the longing of our heart toward the answer. Well,
[7:59] Speaker 1: here it is. In a way, the wise men prostrating
[8:03] Speaker 1: themselves in the presence of the Christ child. That's everything.
[8:07] Speaker 1: That's biblical revelation. That's the longing meeting the answer. That's
[8:13] Speaker 1: right praise being demonstrated to us. Beautiful, beautiful. That's the
[8:19] Speaker 1: heart of it. Okay, but now I want to come
[8:23] Speaker 1: to the gifts. So the heart of the Christmas story
[8:26] Speaker 1: is that God, the one we've been seeking, comes to
[8:32] Speaker 1: us as a gift. The Father sends his Son as
[8:37] Speaker 1: his greatest gift into the world. So what's the proper
[8:41] Speaker 1: response when someone gives you a gift? Is you return
[8:46] Speaker 1: with a gift. We become conformed to the gift that
[8:50] Speaker 1: was given to us. And so the three wise men
[8:53] Speaker 1: present these three famous gifts, right? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
[9:01] Speaker 1: They're mysterious. In one way, we understand. They were expensive things.
[9:07] Speaker 1: So if you were honoring somebody, you'd give them something
[9:10] Speaker 1: of high value. But from early on, St. Irenaeus being
[9:14] Speaker 1: the first one to see this, the three gifts have
[9:16] Speaker 1: a Mystical, symbolic overtone. Why gold? Because the one they've
[9:22] Speaker 1: come to honor is king. If you were coming as
[9:26] Speaker 1: an ambassador to a king, you give him the most
[9:30] Speaker 1: valuable gift you have. Then as now, gold is recognized
[9:34] Speaker 1: as the thing of highest value and greatest beauty. And
[9:39] Speaker 1: so the gift of gold is an acknowledgement that this
[9:43] Speaker 1: baby is the king. Now, everybody Christ must be king
[9:51] Speaker 1: of our lives. That means the one who commands every
[9:57] Speaker 1: aspect of me. He's the Lord God. Jesus. Not someone
[10:01] Speaker 1: that I am mildly interested in, someone that influences me
[10:05] Speaker 1: here and there. No, no, no, no. He's king or
[10:08] Speaker 1: he's nothing. He's king or you've missed the point. So
[10:13] Speaker 1: the first gift we should give to Christ, as the
[10:16] Speaker 1: Magi did, is this acknowledgment of of his lordship, his
[10:21] Speaker 1: kingship over us. Okay? Now, why frankincense? Frankincense was an
[10:29] Speaker 1: incense made from the gum or the resin of a
[10:32] Speaker 1: tree that was found in Saudi Arabia, so it would
[10:34] Speaker 1: correspond to where the Magi were from. It was used
[10:38] Speaker 1: widely in the ancient world for religious ceremonies. To this day,
[10:44] Speaker 1: it is. I'm a Catholic priest, Catholic bishop. I've always
[10:49] Speaker 1: loved incense. The priests in my diocese know that. I've
[10:54] Speaker 1: always loved it because to me, I don't know why
[10:57] Speaker 1: it is, but incense to me always raises my mind
[11:03] Speaker 1: and heart to God. It signals the sacred. Why is
[11:09] Speaker 1: frankincense given to this baby? Because the baby is not
[11:13] Speaker 1: just a king. He is that. He's also God from
[11:17] Speaker 1: God Light from light. True God from true God. Begotten,
[11:22] Speaker 1: not made. Consubstantial with the Father. What are we seeking for? God.
[11:29] Speaker 1: Who has answered us? God. See, that's Christianity. We're not
[11:34] Speaker 1: just one more seeker going up the holy mountain. The
[11:37] Speaker 1: one we seek, God himself has come to us. Therefore,
[11:42] Speaker 1: it's essential to Christian spirituality to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus.
[11:48] Speaker 1: If he is just one more prophet, okay, fine, I
[11:50] Speaker 1: can learn a few things from him. I can be
[11:52] Speaker 1: inspired here and there by him. But if he's God
[11:55] Speaker 1: from God, then everything else has got to give way.
[11:59] Speaker 1: And he is unambiguously the center of my life. The frankincense,
[12:04] Speaker 1: the incense offered to God, signals his divinity. And then finally, myrrh.
[12:11] Speaker 1: It's the most terrible of the gifts in a way.
[12:15] Speaker 1: It was also expensive. It was also a kind of incense,
[12:19] Speaker 1: a kind of resin. But myrrh was used in the
[12:22] Speaker 1: ancient world for different things. But one of its principal
[12:25] Speaker 1: usages in the ancient world was to mask the stench
[12:31] Speaker 1: of a dead body. So we're used to funeral parlors
[12:35] Speaker 1: taking care of all that for us. But in the
[12:36] Speaker 1: ancient world, someone died and you wanted the body preserved,
[12:40] Speaker 1: at least for a time, you'd use this myrrh to
[12:43] Speaker 1: mask the odor of decomposition. Well, the baby's king, the
[12:49] Speaker 1: baby's God, and the baby has come to offer his
[12:55] Speaker 1: very body in sacrifice. How are we saved? We are
[13:01] Speaker 1: longing for God. God's come to meet us. How is
[13:04] Speaker 1: that reconciliation affected? Well, see, sin has got to be
[13:08] Speaker 1: dealt with, everybody. In order for that friendship to happen,
[13:11] Speaker 1: sin has got to be dealt with. How is it
[13:13] Speaker 1: dealt with? It's dealt with on the cross by Christ
[13:16] Speaker 1: giving his whole life. And so from the beginning, they
[13:21] Speaker 1: are acknowledging the sacrifice that this baby will make. Just
[13:27] Speaker 1: a last thought. When you come to Mass, you come
[13:32] Speaker 1: with the longing of the heart, right? Just like the
[13:35] Speaker 1: wise men with the star, you're coming to Mass with
[13:37] Speaker 1: that longing. You're confident God has come to meet you.
[13:43] Speaker 1: So what do we bring? Think of the presence of
[13:45] Speaker 1: gold at Mass, whether it's the gold in the candle holders,
[13:50] Speaker 1: the gold in the chalice, the gold in the decoration.
[13:53] Speaker 1: Whenever you see that, think, yes, it's a gift of
[13:55] Speaker 1: gold to Christ the King. Whenever the incense is used
[14:00] Speaker 1: at Mass, the incense rises. Think, yes, I'm honoring Christ,
[14:04] Speaker 1: who's not just a human figure, but is God from God.
[14:08] Speaker 1: And then remember, at the heart of the Mass is
[14:10] Speaker 1: the sacramental representation of the sacrifice of the cross. It's
[14:16] Speaker 1: myrrh that we also offer. We're the three kings, everybody,
[14:23] Speaker 1: longing for Christ. We're the three kings who now offer
[14:27] Speaker 1: these great gifts. And God bless you.

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