# How to Become a Person of Love - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermons

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 30 Jul 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754516/how_to_become_a_person_of_love.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Don't talk about a government agency taking care of these things.
[0:04] Speaker 1: Don't talk about some institutional program that we'll look after
[0:07] Speaker 1: the homeless and the hungry and so on.
[0:10] Speaker 2: No, you do it. You do it.
[0:13] Speaker 1: There are hungry people right near you.
[0:15] Speaker 2: We'll feed them.
[0:24] Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Vat,
[0:27] Speaker 3: the host and the senior publishing director at Word on Fire.
[0:31] Speaker 3: Almost all of us want to be a good person,
[0:34] Speaker 3: but how do we actually do that? How do we
[0:36] Speaker 3: become a person of love? That's what we're discussing today
[0:40] Speaker 3: with Bishop Robert Baron joining us from Rochester, Minnesota.
[0:43] Speaker 4: Bishop, good to.
[0:44] Speaker 2: See you, Hey, Brandon. How you doing today?
[0:47] Speaker 4: Pretty good?
[0:48] Speaker 3: I hear there's some exciting developments and updates with the
[0:51] Speaker 3: new pastoral center that you're building there in Rochester.
[0:54] Speaker 4: Tell us about that.
[0:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, as we record these words, I'm not sure when
[0:57] Speaker 1: the show will come up, but as we record them.
[0:59] Speaker 1: I just got back from a meeting at the new
[1:01] Speaker 1: Pastoral Center. It's about oh, six or seven minutes from
[1:06] Speaker 1: we're recording these words. It's in Rochester here, and we're moving,
[1:09] Speaker 1: you know, the headquarters of the diocese from Winona to
[1:12] Speaker 1: Rochester and through a wonderful donation from a great Catholic
[1:17] Speaker 1: here and other donors. We got property and we're building
[1:21] Speaker 1: a lovely pastoral center. And I brought in an architect
[1:26] Speaker 1: friend of mine, matt Man Nicholas from Chicago, who was
[1:29] Speaker 1: trained at Notre Dame in classical Catholic architecture, and he
[1:33] Speaker 1: sort of enhanced the ability to make it more Catholic
[1:36] Speaker 1: in appearance in the center of it's got two wings
[1:38] Speaker 1: in the center though, it's a great chapel and with
[1:41] Speaker 1: a rose window and a vaulted ceiling, and it's it's
[1:45] Speaker 1: not finished yet, but we got in today and I
[1:47] Speaker 1: really saw the height of it, and even now it has.
[1:52] Speaker 2: A great majesty and beauty about it. So I'm just thrilled.
[1:57] Speaker 1: It'll be a huge upgrade for us in the diocese
[1:59] Speaker 1: to move from where we had been in Wenona to hear,
[2:02] Speaker 1: and I think it will be an evangelically important sign
[2:05] Speaker 1: to the community because as you come along it's a
[2:07] Speaker 1: major street. As you come along, you see this beautiful
[2:12] Speaker 1: the back of the chapel with the rose window. From
[2:14] Speaker 1: the other direction you see the facade of the building,
[2:17] Speaker 1: and so I think it'll proclaim the Gospel in its
[2:19] Speaker 1: own way, so very happy about it.
[2:22] Speaker 4: When do you expect it to be moving ready?
[2:24] Speaker 1: Well they say April thirtieth, so what about four or
[2:28] Speaker 1: five months from now? And we broke ground in late April,
[2:32] Speaker 1: so they build that building pretty fast.
[2:35] Speaker 2: So I'm just delighted by that.
[2:37] Speaker 3: Well, today I want to talk with you about how
[2:39] Speaker 3: to become a person of love. You know, when you
[2:42] Speaker 3: ask people on the street what's the purpose of life,
[2:44] Speaker 3: religious people, non religious people, probably the most common answer
[2:47] Speaker 3: you'll get is to be a good person. And you
[2:50] Speaker 3: and I have quippled with that answer. That's not necessarily
[2:52] Speaker 3: the full purpose of life, but it does raise the
[2:55] Speaker 3: question how do you do that? How do you become
[2:57] Speaker 3: a good person?
[2:58] Speaker 4: What does it mean?
[3:00] Speaker 3: In answer to that, you've often quoted Dorothy day One
[3:03] Speaker 3: said that everything a baptized Christian does every day should
[3:08] Speaker 3: be related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
[3:12] Speaker 3: In fact, if I'm not mistaken, when you were a
[3:15] Speaker 3: rector of Mondoline Seminary, you had posters made with that
[3:18] Speaker 3: quote and you hung them up all around the campus.
[3:21] Speaker 3: What is Dorothy getting at here? And why are these
[3:25] Speaker 3: corporal and spiritual works of mercy so important?
[3:28] Speaker 1: It's one of those quotes that was just illuminating from
[3:31] Speaker 1: the moment I read it. You know certain things you
[3:33] Speaker 1: read and it just kind of takes your breathway and
[3:35] Speaker 1: you say, yes, that just sheds light in every direction.
[3:39] Speaker 1: I think the reason, Brandon is it so concretizes what
[3:43] Speaker 1: we mean when we say love. So right, everyone wants
[3:46] Speaker 1: to be a good person, and everyone's devoted to love great.
[3:49] Speaker 2: But what does that mean. It means to will the
[3:51] Speaker 2: good of the other.
[3:52] Speaker 1: And you say, okay, I get that, but that's still
[3:54] Speaker 1: kind of abstract. What does it mean to will the
[3:58] Speaker 1: good of the other? And her answer was, it means
[4:00] Speaker 1: the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, these works of
[4:04] Speaker 1: love right, and outreach in love to those who are
[4:07] Speaker 1: suffering in some way. Now we're talking concretely about the
[4:12] Speaker 1: Christian life. I like how Poul Francis likes that word
[4:15] Speaker 1: of concrete, you know, to make something real, because we
[4:20] Speaker 1: religious people, especially, we can sometimes lose ourselves in gassy abstractions. Okay,
[4:27] Speaker 1: so I'm a personal love, well that looks like something,
[4:30] Speaker 1: it looks like these very particular acts, and so it's
[4:36] Speaker 1: a great way of anchoring your spiritual life and your
[4:39] Speaker 1: moral life.
[4:41] Speaker 3: I just realized, maybe there's probably some people listening who
[4:45] Speaker 3: aren't familiar with corporal and spiritual works of mercy. So
[4:48] Speaker 3: maybe we go back up one step and just give
[4:50] Speaker 3: us a basic overview of what these are. We're going
[4:52] Speaker 3: to walk through each of them one at a time,
[4:53] Speaker 3: but what are these in general?
[4:55] Speaker 1: Well, we should just probably name them. Right to feed
[4:59] Speaker 1: the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe
[5:03] Speaker 1: the naked, to provide shelter for the homeless, to visit
[5:11] Speaker 1: the sick, to bury the dead.
[5:14] Speaker 2: I'm always missing one.
[5:16] Speaker 1: Visit the imprison visit the imprisoned. So they're very concrete,
[5:21] Speaker 1: aren't they. They're very particular. No, No, don't talk about
[5:27] Speaker 1: a government agency taking care of these things. Don't talk
[5:30] Speaker 1: about some institutional program that will look after the homeless
[5:34] Speaker 1: and the hungry and so on.
[5:35] Speaker 2: No, you do it. You do it.
[5:38] Speaker 1: There are hungry people right near you.
[5:40] Speaker 2: We'll feed them, you know.
[5:42] Speaker 1: So it anchors the moral life in a way that
[5:46] Speaker 1: is both unnerving and liberating.
[5:51] Speaker 3: So you listed out the seven corporal works of mercy,
[5:54] Speaker 3: there's also seven spiritual works of mercy. I thought maybe
[5:57] Speaker 3: we could devote a discussion to that in a couple
[5:59] Speaker 3: of weeks or so. Okay, I want to focus on
[6:01] Speaker 3: the corporal works of mercy today. Would you say it's
[6:04] Speaker 3: correct that we, as people aiming to be people of love,
[6:09] Speaker 3: should use these as a litmus test that these are.
[6:12] Speaker 4: The marks we should measure our love against.
[6:15] Speaker 1: Yes, Because if you say, all right, to love me
[6:16] Speaker 1: is to will the good or the other and do
[6:18] Speaker 1: something about it, all right, now, show me, show me
[6:22] Speaker 1: precisely how you're doing that, and it's got to show
[6:26] Speaker 1: up in your life as these works of mercy to
[6:28] Speaker 1: those who are in need. So yes, I think it's
[6:32] Speaker 1: a very good way to ground the Christian life.
[6:37] Speaker 4: All right, So let's go through them one at a time.
[6:39] Speaker 3: I thought, if nothing else, this might be a good
[6:41] Speaker 3: opportunity for all of us to use as an examination
[6:44] Speaker 3: of conscience as we're discussing these through. Yes, am, I am,
[6:49] Speaker 3: I following these myself. Yeah, maybe maybe we can group
[6:53] Speaker 3: the first few together. So the first three are feed
[6:56] Speaker 3: the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothes naked.
[7:00] Speaker 4: How do you read these three.
[7:03] Speaker 1: Very basic needs of people that have to be met? Again,
[7:09] Speaker 1: we can fly into the realm of abstraction. Oh, I'm
[7:11] Speaker 1: helping people. Well, how there are people who are in
[7:16] Speaker 1: need in this most basic way. Now you say, oh,
[7:19] Speaker 1: I guess you know overseas, so I'll send some money
[7:22] Speaker 1: to the missions. Well, fine, I have nothing against that.
[7:25] Speaker 2: Please do it. And that is a way of doing
[7:27] Speaker 2: the works of mercy.
[7:28] Speaker 1: But we can forget Brandon very easily. I don't care
[7:32] Speaker 1: who's listening to me right now. Trust me, within ten
[7:36] Speaker 1: minutes of where you're sitting, there are hungry and thirsty people.
[7:40] Speaker 2: There are. I lived for six years, as you.
[7:42] Speaker 1: Well know, in Santa Barbara, California, one of the most
[7:45] Speaker 1: you know, exclusive parts of the world. Oprah lives there,
[7:48] Speaker 1: in Montecito, Prince Harry lives there. You know, Kevin Costner
[7:53] Speaker 1: and movie stars live there. I lived, I don't know,
[7:57] Speaker 1: fifteen minutes from where they live. I didn't live in
[7:59] Speaker 1: a a fancies fancy neighborhood but Santa Barbara. But ten
[8:06] Speaker 1: minutes from my house in Santa Barbara, maybe less than it.
[8:10] Speaker 1: There were people who were hungry and thirsty on a
[8:13] Speaker 1: chronic basis. So don't think that the hungry and thirsty
[8:17] Speaker 1: and those who need decent clothing are just in some
[8:21] Speaker 1: distant you know, Asian or African country. They are no
[8:24] Speaker 1: matter where you're hearing me, they are within ten minutes
[8:28] Speaker 1: of you. So what are you doing to help them?
[8:32] Speaker 2: Now?
[8:33] Speaker 1: Homeless shelters and soup kitchens and great Believe me, there's
[8:36] Speaker 1: one not far from you. I don't care where you are,
[8:39] Speaker 1: there's one not far from you. Go help out, give
[8:42] Speaker 1: money to it. Yes, indeed, be a presence at a
[8:46] Speaker 1: place like that. Yes, vote in accord with some of
[8:51] Speaker 1: these principles. Sure, do all those things. But I like
[8:54] Speaker 1: the direct involvement that you personally kind of getting your
[8:59] Speaker 1: hands dirty, so to speak. You get involved in these activities.
[9:03] Speaker 2: But you know, think of something.
[9:04] Speaker 1: Brandon as simple as a mom preparing a meal for
[9:08] Speaker 1: her kids. Well, that's a corporal work of mercy. She's
[9:11] Speaker 1: feeding the hungry.
[9:12] Speaker 2: You know.
[9:14] Speaker 1: Think of someone who's getting a lemonade for someone who
[9:18] Speaker 1: who's thirsty after a run or something. Sure, that's giving
[9:21] Speaker 1: drink to the thirsty. So it's not like just the
[9:24] Speaker 1: dramatic cases of you know, those who are dire need.
[9:28] Speaker 1: But even even those simple gestures of assuaging someone's hunger
[9:33] Speaker 1: or thirst, clothing naked, there are people who are in
[9:38] Speaker 1: need of like warm clothing, a lot of people listen
[9:42] Speaker 1: to me right now, within ten minutes of you. There
[9:46] Speaker 1: are centers that provide clothes for people that need them.
[9:51] Speaker 1: Babies who are you know, in poor families that need
[9:55] Speaker 1: basic clothing. One thing I mentioned, I think maybe the
[9:59] Speaker 1: Good News conference, I said, the closet is a very
[10:03] Speaker 1: interesting place for some spiritual work.
[10:06] Speaker 2: What I met was you.
[10:08] Speaker 1: Go into your closet and trust me, you're going to
[10:11] Speaker 1: find all kinds of things in there that you don't wear,
[10:15] Speaker 1: that you haven't worn in ages. There's a shirt, why
[10:19] Speaker 1: is that still here? I haven't warned a thing in
[10:20] Speaker 1: three years. Well, that's a very good sign that it
[10:24] Speaker 1: is time to give that away. Someone once said to me,
[10:27] Speaker 1: there's there should be like an expiration date on clothes
[10:30] Speaker 1: like that food. You know, like if this this shirt
[10:33] Speaker 1: expired in you know, twenty nineteen. Good go into your
[10:38] Speaker 1: closet and find shoes and shirts and pants and coats.
[10:43] Speaker 2: That you can and should give away, and give that's
[10:47] Speaker 2: clothing the naked right.
[10:49] Speaker 1: So I like the particular concrete quality of these things.
[10:55] Speaker 3: You know, you shared that that Dorothy Day quote just
[10:57] Speaker 3: kind of rocked your world and left an indelible mind.
[11:00] Speaker 3: There was a similar quote that I encountered when I
[11:02] Speaker 3: was in college. At the time, I was a Protestant
[11:05] Speaker 3: and there was an evangelical writer named Shane Claiborne, kind
[11:08] Speaker 3: of an evangelical version of Dorothy Day, wrote a book
[11:11] Speaker 3: called The Irresistible Revolution about serving the poor, and he
[11:15] Speaker 3: said this. He said, I come to see that the
[11:17] Speaker 3: great tragedy in the Church is not that rich Christians
[11:21] Speaker 3: do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians
[11:24] Speaker 3: do not know the poor. And his point was that
[11:28] Speaker 3: there's an indirect way to help the poor through charities
[11:31] Speaker 3: and organizations and donations. All those are good things. We
[11:34] Speaker 3: should encourage them. There's something radically different when you go
[11:38] Speaker 3: into the street and physically give food or drink to somebody,
[11:41] Speaker 3: or physically give clothes to somebody. Why is that a
[11:45] Speaker 3: different type of interaction.
[11:47] Speaker 1: It reaches to the fullness of your being. It's not
[11:50] Speaker 1: just the valaity that would be the most abstract, nor
[11:54] Speaker 1: is it just a sending a check. It's something that
[11:57] Speaker 1: involves the totality of you. As I say, it gets
[12:01] Speaker 1: your hands dirty, or Pope Francis, it gives you the
[12:03] Speaker 1: smell of the sheep, you know. So I think that's
[12:07] Speaker 1: that's a it's an incarnational understanding of these of these works.
[12:12] Speaker 3: You know.
[12:12] Speaker 1: The closet thing against interesting, I think I got that
[12:14] Speaker 1: idea from It's been attributed to both John Chrisystem and
[12:18] Speaker 1: to Saint Ambrose. The line that if you've got two
[12:21] Speaker 1: shirts in your closet, one belongs to you, the other
[12:24] Speaker 1: belongs to the man who has no shirt. Talk about
[12:28] Speaker 1: a quote that takes your breath away, right, if you
[12:31] Speaker 1: let that one sink in, I don't know.
[12:34] Speaker 2: I mean, look at all.
[12:34] Speaker 1: The shirts I got in my closet, many which I
[12:37] Speaker 1: don't wear anymore.
[12:40] Speaker 4: And you kind of wear the same thing every day.
[12:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. I wear a lot of the same
[12:43] Speaker 2: look every day, basic black.
[12:47] Speaker 1: So there's such a good, challenging and incurrent way of
[12:56] Speaker 1: expressing love.
[12:58] Speaker 3: So those are the first three of the operal works
[13:00] Speaker 3: of mercy, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty,
[13:03] Speaker 3: clothing the naked. The fourth one is visiting the imprisoned. Yeah,
[13:08] Speaker 3: is this one we should take literally that all Christians
[13:11] Speaker 3: should be going to prisons and visiting prisoners.
[13:14] Speaker 1: Yes, I've many times quoted Johnny Cash, one of my
[13:18] Speaker 1: musical heroes, but who played in prisons all the time, famously,
[13:22] Speaker 1: you know, the falsome prison and all that. And he
[13:25] Speaker 1: was asked why he did that, and his answer was, well,
[13:26] Speaker 1: because I'm a Christian, which is a perfectly satisfactory answer
[13:30] Speaker 1: to that question. I think so, yes, indeed, it does
[13:32] Speaker 1: mean that. But you know, he broadened the two. There
[13:35] Speaker 1: are a lot of prisons, aren't there. Elderly people that
[13:38] Speaker 1: are kind of imprisoned in their own home, sick people
[13:41] Speaker 1: that can be imprisoned on their own bed, people imprisoned
[13:45] Speaker 1: by addictions, people imprisoned by their fears, imprisoned by old
[13:50] Speaker 1: hatreds they can't get rid of. You know, there's a
[13:52] Speaker 1: lot of forms of incarceration, and so do we visit
[13:59] Speaker 1: in a liberating way?
[14:00] Speaker 2: Those who are in prison?
[14:02] Speaker 1: Maybe think about that when you again, I like your idea, Brandon,
[14:05] Speaker 1: of a way of examining your conscience. I find it
[14:08] Speaker 1: very helpful when you go to confession, so that you
[14:11] Speaker 1: don't just kind of repeat the same formulas over and
[14:13] Speaker 1: over again, but you're really examining your conscience. One way
[14:16] Speaker 1: to do it is with the deadly sins or the
[14:21] Speaker 1: tank commandments. But this is not a bad way either.
[14:23] Speaker 1: How have I done or not done the corporal and
[14:26] Speaker 1: spiritual works. So as you're approaching your day, all right,
[14:31] Speaker 1: who are imprisoned people that I'm likely to meet today
[14:36] Speaker 1: or that I should go to meet today and visit?
[14:39] Speaker 2: It's a good question.
[14:42] Speaker 3: There's a lot of us at Word on fire, whom
[14:44] Speaker 3: you've counseled and helped over the years. And I know
[14:47] Speaker 3: one bit of advice you often give to somebody who's
[14:50] Speaker 3: really struggling in a dark period, whether because of depression
[14:54] Speaker 3: or doubt or sin, or they're just going through something tough.
[14:57] Speaker 3: And a bit of advice you regularly give is go
[15:00] Speaker 3: out and do an act of love, and you use
[15:03] Speaker 3: these as your reference. Why is that the right path
[15:05] Speaker 3: to take?
[15:06] Speaker 1: I've been saying that for years because I preset to
[15:08] Speaker 1: myself too. Look, if if the Lord is right about this,
[15:14] Speaker 1: that you'll know that you're my disciples by your love.
[15:19] Speaker 1: God is love, The goal of life is union with God,
[15:23] Speaker 1: and therefore we have our answer.
[15:25] Speaker 2: That's the answer. And I think it's.
[15:27] Speaker 1: Proven experientially over and over again that when you're preoccupied,
[15:31] Speaker 1: when you're afraid, you're anxious, you're depressed, there's a kind
[15:34] Speaker 1: of as Augustine said right in Cravatus and say you've
[15:37] Speaker 1: caved in around yourself. Go out, go out and not
[15:42] Speaker 1: just you know, to find entertainment. Go out in an
[15:45] Speaker 1: attitude of love, and you'll break free of this kind
[15:48] Speaker 1: of black hole quality that's I think our metaphor for
[15:52] Speaker 1: in Cravatus and say, would be a black hole that
[15:54] Speaker 1: just draws everything into itself. To break free from that
[15:58] Speaker 1: is to engage, even in the semplest active love doesn't
[16:01] Speaker 1: mean you know, mother Teresa, But I mean, just how
[16:04] Speaker 1: about write a note to someone that you haven't talked
[16:07] Speaker 1: to for a while that you suspect probably could use
[16:10] Speaker 1: a word of encouragement, Offer a compliment to someone who
[16:14] Speaker 1: needs it, right, Help a kid who's struggling with his
[16:19] Speaker 1: or her studies in school. Bake cookies and give them out.
[16:24] Speaker 1: I mean, do do anything that will break you free
[16:27] Speaker 1: of the black hole tendency of sin.
[16:31] Speaker 2: That's what I mean.
[16:32] Speaker 1: And so when people write to me, they do sometimes
[16:35] Speaker 1: saying just that like I'm just lost, I'm in a
[16:40] Speaker 1: black depression, you know, and I don't know the person
[16:44] Speaker 1: well enough to be giving like really good psychological or
[16:47] Speaker 1: counseling kind of advice. But I always say that, all right,
[16:52] Speaker 1: is step one. Perform the simplest act of love today
[16:57] Speaker 1: and then tomorrow do another one, and the next day
[17:02] Speaker 1: maybe do two acts of love, you know, and it
[17:06] Speaker 1: can't do any harm. The person probably needs, I know,
[17:11] Speaker 1: needs more personal attention and maybe psychological counseling and medication.
[17:17] Speaker 2: Even who knows, And nothing wrong with any of that.
[17:20] Speaker 1: But as step one, perform the simplest act of love,
[17:24] Speaker 1: and I think you'll find a way out of that hell.
[17:28] Speaker 3: Well, the fifth corporal work of mercy is sheltered the homeless,
[17:32] Speaker 3: And it's easy to think of Dorothy Day once again.
[17:35] Speaker 3: She and Peter Morian founded these houses of hospitality where
[17:39] Speaker 3: they would regularly welcome people off the street to sleep
[17:43] Speaker 3: as long as they needed to. What does that mean
[17:46] Speaker 3: for the rest of us, who maybe aren't in a
[17:48] Speaker 3: position to, you know, literally welcome homeless people into our
[17:51] Speaker 3: homes or is that what the church is driving at here?
[17:55] Speaker 1: Well, at the limit, I think, But look, everyone knows
[17:58] Speaker 1: in our country it's worse ANDed enormously in the course
[18:02] Speaker 1: of my lifetime the homelessness problem. My years in la
[18:06] Speaker 1: I was there for you know, six years, and it
[18:09] Speaker 1: was appreciably worse when I arrived in La and even
[18:13] Speaker 1: in Santa Barbara when I arrived there, and then six
[18:15] Speaker 1: years later it was appreciably worse. Go up the coast
[18:18] Speaker 1: in California, San Francisco and other places. Homeless is here
[18:22] Speaker 1: in Rochester, Minnesota, which is brutal as the winter has
[18:25] Speaker 1: now arrived, you know. So yeah, to be aware of
[18:29] Speaker 1: that problem and do something now. Now that might be
[18:32] Speaker 1: you know, in your in your contributions and your in
[18:35] Speaker 1: your political commitments, but yeah, you know, you do something
[18:40] Speaker 1: to provide shelter, and maybe it's working in a homeless shelter,
[18:44] Speaker 1: maybe it's contributing to a homeless shelter. So different ways
[18:47] Speaker 1: you can do it. But that problem has only gotten worse,
[18:51] Speaker 1: hasn't it in our time?
[18:54] Speaker 3: All right, let's move to the sixth corporal work of mercy,
[18:56] Speaker 3: which is visiting the sick.
[18:58] Speaker 4: How should we understand that?
[19:00] Speaker 1: And I mean something everyone can do, from oldest to youngest.
[19:05] Speaker 1: That seems to me we all know someone who's sick
[19:09] Speaker 1: in the hospital, in a hospice care, in nursing care,
[19:13] Speaker 1: someone who just has a bad case of the flu
[19:15] Speaker 1: and they're in bed. Everyone I bet listen to me
[19:18] Speaker 1: right now knows somebody who's sick and could stand to visit.
[19:23] Speaker 2: When I was doing parish work Brandon many years.
[19:25] Speaker 1: Ago, I was very devoted to this, and not that
[19:27] Speaker 1: I found it easy. I didn't the prospect of getting
[19:31] Speaker 1: in the car and driving to a hospital and spending
[19:34] Speaker 1: a couple of hours, you know, visiting parishoners. But gosh,
[19:37] Speaker 1: I always, without exception, came back from those visits full
[19:43] Speaker 1: of joy.
[19:44] Speaker 2: You know, I always thought of the psalm.
[19:46] Speaker 1: They went out, they went out full of tears, caring
[19:48] Speaker 1: seed for the sewing. They come back, they come back
[19:50] Speaker 1: full of songs, carrying their sheaves. That's what was like
[19:53] Speaker 1: for me when I was go to the hospital to
[19:55] Speaker 1: visit prisoners. Is I kind of went out with tears,
[19:59] Speaker 1: like with some resist stints, but I always came back,
[20:03] Speaker 1: uh laughing, always came back with with a song.
[20:06] Speaker 2: Right, do it? Do it?
[20:09] Speaker 1: Visit people who are sick. We all know somebody. So
[20:14] Speaker 1: it's again concrete, hard to do, yeah, sometimes annoying, difficult, Yeah,
[20:22] Speaker 1: but do it visit the sick.
[20:24] Speaker 3: I like how this corporate worker mercy is not heal
[20:27] Speaker 3: the sick, right, make them feel better, But visit visit?
[20:31] Speaker 4: Why? What about visiting is important?
[20:33] Speaker 1: This is an active love, isn't it. It's it's being
[20:34] Speaker 1: with someone, It's it's willing the good of the others.
[20:37] Speaker 1: I've I've come just to be with you, and I've
[20:39] Speaker 1: remember this is some years ago, and I was really sick.
[20:42] Speaker 1: I won't go into all the details, but I just
[20:43] Speaker 1: come out of a surgery and I I WU was
[20:46] Speaker 1: saying I didn't want visitors at that point, I'm like.
[20:49] Speaker 2: Please go away.
[20:50] Speaker 1: But then after a few days, you know, no, I
[20:52] Speaker 1: craved having visitors, you know, because we all know it's
[20:56] Speaker 1: it's a tough time and it's it's hard to it's
[20:59] Speaker 1: hard to, you know, be yourself when you're sick, and
[21:01] Speaker 1: so visiting means a lot.
[21:05] Speaker 3: All right, Let's turn to the last corporal work of mercy,
[21:07] Speaker 3: which is burying the dead. And I know you have
[21:10] Speaker 3: a particular memory of your father in regards to this
[21:13] Speaker 3: corporal work of mercy, how he practiced it and counted it.
[21:18] Speaker 1: It's where I learned the term because this one. I
[21:20] Speaker 1: was a little kid and my father, you know, was
[21:22] Speaker 1: good irishman's He went to a lot of wakes, and
[21:24] Speaker 1: he was a salesman. He knew a lot of people,
[21:27] Speaker 1: and that combination meant he went to a lot of wakes,
[21:31] Speaker 1: and he'd come home from the way, I'm a little kid,
[21:33] Speaker 1: and we're kind of wondering, what were you, what were
[21:35] Speaker 1: you doing?
[21:36] Speaker 2: You know, what's the what's the point of that?
[21:37] Speaker 1: He would always say, corporal work of mercy. So he
[21:40] Speaker 1: must have learned that when he was a kid in
[21:42] Speaker 1: Catholic you know, grade school. So going back into the
[21:44] Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, and what do you mean a corporate work
[21:47] Speaker 1: in mercy? And said, well, that's one of them is
[21:49] Speaker 1: burying the dead. Is that you're attentive to the needs
[21:52] Speaker 1: of you know, those the families of those who have died,
[21:56] Speaker 1: et cetera. And so that that's where the phrase first
[21:59] Speaker 1: got in my mind, And biblically goes back to Tobait,
[22:01] Speaker 1: doesn't it, You know, in the Book of Tobit, who
[22:03] Speaker 1: who buries the dead who are left lying on the
[22:06] Speaker 1: ground and not attended to. And so it was a
[22:08] Speaker 1: work in mercy for them and for their families. And
[22:11] Speaker 1: so again, when I was a parish priest, I spent
[22:14] Speaker 1: a lot of time bearing the dead. I spent a
[22:18] Speaker 1: lot of time in funeral parlors, going to wakes, and
[22:22] Speaker 1: then presiding at funerals and then driving behind hearses to
[22:25] Speaker 1: cemeteries and doing gravesite services. I spent a lot of
[22:29] Speaker 1: time bearing the dead. I would tell my guys at
[22:32] Speaker 1: Mondoline when I was rector. You know, as a priest,
[22:35] Speaker 1: you're going to do the corporal and spiritual works of mercy,
[22:38] Speaker 1: and one of them is that you'll be twenty six
[22:42] Speaker 1: or seven years old, it's a beautiful summer day and
[22:44] Speaker 1: you're following the third hearse of the week. You know,
[22:49] Speaker 1: But that's the game. That's what we do. We do
[22:51] Speaker 1: the corporal and spiritual works for mercy. So that's again
[22:55] Speaker 1: a concrete expression of the church's life.
[22:59] Speaker 4: Is a wrap up here.
[23:00] Speaker 3: I wanted to ask one more question about these corporal
[23:02] Speaker 3: works in relation to families. Bouncing off something you said
[23:05] Speaker 3: just a little bit earlier, is I talked to a
[23:08] Speaker 3: lot of mothers and fathers with lots of kids, and
[23:11] Speaker 3: they already feel overwhelmed thinking of adding all these.
[23:15] Speaker 4: Extra corporal works of mercy to what they're doing.
[23:17] Speaker 3: But I know for me, there was once a priest
[23:20] Speaker 3: who impressed upon me the need to practice these within
[23:24] Speaker 3: the family. Yeaw, parents are naturally already doing, yes, at
[23:28] Speaker 3: least six six of these things the hungry.
[23:30] Speaker 1: Think about all the times Brandon, you and Kathleen have
[23:32] Speaker 1: fed your children and give the.
[23:35] Speaker 4: Most breaks most days.
[23:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, a few days you just leave the star no
[23:40] Speaker 1: right and clothe the naked. Well, look how many babies
[23:43] Speaker 1: have you brought home, you know, naked from the hospital
[23:45] Speaker 1: and then from that moment on you've been clothing them.
[23:47] Speaker 2: So yes, that's absolutely right.
[23:49] Speaker 1: And even though I visit the in prison, not that
[23:51] Speaker 1: your kids are in prison, but they'll get imprisoned by
[23:53] Speaker 1: all kinds of you know, their their fears or their
[23:56] Speaker 1: anxieties or whatever, visit the sick are you kidding? Parents
[24:00] Speaker 1: are always the bedside of sick kids, right, So yeah, that's
[24:05] Speaker 1: absolutely right. It doesn't have to be you know, the
[24:07] Speaker 1: dramatic Dorothy Day mother Teresa expression, but it could be
[24:11] Speaker 1: very every day.
[24:12] Speaker 3: Absolutely Well, it's time now for our question from one
[24:25] Speaker 3: of our listeners. Today we have one about sin, the
[24:28] Speaker 3: passing on of sin. Here's the question.
[24:33] Speaker 5: Hi, Bishop Baron, my name is Gigi, and I'm wondering,
[24:37] Speaker 5: since I did not inherit the sins of my parents,
[24:41] Speaker 5: why did I inherit the sins of Adam and Eve?
[24:44] Speaker 5: Thank you for taking my question. Goodbye.
[24:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, it's a good question.
[24:49] Speaker 1: But see, I would quarrel with your major premise because
[24:51] Speaker 1: I think, willy nilly, you.
[24:54] Speaker 2: Have inherited your parents in.
[24:55] Speaker 1: I don't mean that your parents in is applied to
[24:58] Speaker 1: your own will responsible for their bad choices.
[25:02] Speaker 2: But sin is like a contagion, you know, It's like.
[25:07] Speaker 1: It's like a dysfunction in a family. So think of
[25:09] Speaker 1: a kid born into a dysfunctional family where alcohol abuse
[25:13] Speaker 1: or drug abuse or physical abuse or whatever is on offer.
[25:18] Speaker 1: Whether that kid likes it or not, he inherits, in
[25:22] Speaker 1: that sense, the sins of his parents.
[25:25] Speaker 3: You know.
[25:25] Speaker 1: The most dramatic example would be a crack baby. Right,
[25:28] Speaker 1: There's a baby that's born to a mother who's addicted
[25:32] Speaker 1: to crack. The baby is born addicted to crack, even
[25:36] Speaker 1: though the baby is not morally responsible in any way,
[25:39] Speaker 1: but de facto, the baby has inherited.
[25:43] Speaker 2: The sin of his mother.
[25:44] Speaker 1: Well, I think sin is kind of like that. It's
[25:48] Speaker 1: it's a poisonous atmosphere that we're in. And you know,
[25:52] Speaker 1: I think I find dear parents, you know, sure, the
[25:56] Speaker 1: quirks or limitations of theirs that I inherit or I
[26:00] Speaker 1: was affected by and I think that's the best way
[26:03] Speaker 1: to understand original sin, that we do indeed inherit.
[26:07] Speaker 2: Now this whole long.
[26:09] Speaker 1: History of human dysfunction, beginning with our first parents, but
[26:13] Speaker 1: coming up through the whole of human history. Sure we inherit.
[26:18] Speaker 2: That you know, it affects us.
[26:20] Speaker 1: Again, not to be a sign to my personal will,
[26:22] Speaker 1: but that's what the church teaches.
[26:24] Speaker 2: Original sin is not a.
[26:25] Speaker 1: Sign to my personal will, but it's like a poisonous atmosphere.
[26:30] Speaker 2: See.
[26:30] Speaker 1: And again that's why we need not just a teacher,
[26:34] Speaker 1: we need a savior. We need someone that can come
[26:37] Speaker 1: into the dysfunction but is not of the dysfunction.
[26:42] Speaker 2: See.
[26:42] Speaker 1: If Jesus is just one more human being, well, there
[26:46] Speaker 1: is effected as I am. They might be smart and interesting,
[26:49] Speaker 1: and they might offer some political liberation or whatever, but
[26:52] Speaker 1: they won't save us. The savior has to come from
[26:56] Speaker 1: outside the dysfunction and enter into it. We say he's
[27:01] Speaker 1: fully human and fully divine, because only such a figure
[27:05] Speaker 1: can really save us. He's only human, Well, then he's
[27:08] Speaker 1: stuck in it with us. He's only divine. Well then
[27:12] Speaker 1: he's hovering above the mess. But he's divine and human.
[27:16] Speaker 1: Now he can function as a savior, and that's why
[27:19] Speaker 1: we need him to save us from sin and all
[27:21] Speaker 1: of its manifestations.
[27:23] Speaker 3: Well, thanks for that question, and thanks to all of
[27:25] Speaker 3: you for joining us for this discussion on the corporal
[27:27] Speaker 3: works of mercy. Again, probably in a couple weeks here
[27:30] Speaker 3: we'll have a follow up discussion and we'll walk through
[27:32] Speaker 3: the spiritual works of mercy, So look forward to that one.
[27:36] Speaker 3: Listen as we wrap up here. Lent is right around
[27:39] Speaker 3: the corner when this episode drops. It's only going to
[27:41] Speaker 3: be about a month away. Lent actually is going to
[27:43] Speaker 3: be on February fourteenth, yty, It's on Valentine's Day, so
[27:47] Speaker 3: good luck to a lot of couples trying to figure
[27:49] Speaker 3: that night out. But at Word on Fire, we are
[27:51] Speaker 3: once again releasing our Lent Reflections booklet. So you can
[27:55] Speaker 3: get your twenty twenty four Lent Reflections booklet today and
[27:58] Speaker 3: we want to send it to you for free. You
[28:00] Speaker 3: can get a free copy, you just cover the shipping
[28:03] Speaker 3: and handling. You can also order book copies twenty fifty,
[28:07] Speaker 3: one hundred or even for your whole parish. I know
[28:09] Speaker 3: tons of parishes do that. Each booklet features the gospel
[28:13] Speaker 3: reading for every day during Lent from Mass, along with
[28:15] Speaker 3: a short reflection from Bishop Baron, so you can journey
[28:19] Speaker 3: through the scriptures throughout Lent. Hundreds of thousands of people
[28:22] Speaker 3: have been enjoying these books over many years, so learn more,
[28:25] Speaker 3: get your free single copy, and then order a bunch
[28:27] Speaker 3: more to pass out to friends or family or prishioners.
[28:30] Speaker 3: You can find out more at the website wordonfire dot
[28:34] Speaker 3: org slash Lent twenty twenty four. The website's word onfired
[28:37] Speaker 3: dot org slash Lent twenty twenty four. I'll include a
[28:41] Speaker 3: link to that in the show notes. Well, thanks so
[28:43] Speaker 3: much for watching and listening. We'll see you next time
[28:46] Speaker 3: on the Word on Fire Show

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