# Have You Wandered Away from God_ - Mar Mari Emmanuel – The Mysterious Sign That Changed Everything

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 20 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73038762/have_you_wandered_away_from_god_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. We come to the second
[0:02] Speaker 1: Sunday of Advent and there's a lot of talk about
[0:05] Speaker 1: building highways. Now, what is going on there and why
[0:09] Speaker 1: is that being used as a spiritual symbol. Well, first
[0:12] Speaker 1: of all, I remember the importance in the Bible both
[0:15] Speaker 1: Old Testament, and knew of this theme of exile. Very often,
[0:20] Speaker 1: Israel finds itself in exile. Think of the slavery in Egypt,
[0:25] Speaker 1: Think of the Assyrian exile of the northern tribes, think
[0:28] Speaker 1: of the Babylonian exile of the southern tribes. Israel being
[0:33] Speaker 1: sent away from its own promised land. And so a
[0:37] Speaker 1: great hope, and you hear it throughout the Bible, is
[0:41] Speaker 1: that one day the exiles and the slaves will return,
[0:46] Speaker 1: They'll come back to their homeland. So exile and return
[0:50] Speaker 1: is a major motif. Well, listen, now, our first reading
[0:54] Speaker 1: is from the prophet Baruch. Baruk was a friend of Jeremiah.
[0:57] Speaker 1: He was a kind of secretary to Jeremiah. This up, Jerusalem,
[1:03] Speaker 1: stand upon the heights, look to the east, and see
[1:06] Speaker 1: your children gathered from the east and the west at
[1:09] Speaker 1: the word of the Holy One. But what's being referenced
[1:12] Speaker 1: here are something very specific actually the Babylonian exiles, those
[1:17] Speaker 1: who've been taken away from Jerusalem and Judea and brought
[1:21] Speaker 1: to Babylon. And now at this time they're making their
[1:24] Speaker 1: way back, and so Baruk is sort of exulting in, Hey, hey, everybody, look,
[1:31] Speaker 1: here they come. There's a highway leading the exiles back home.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Listen to this again, led away on foot by their enemies,
[1:44] Speaker 1: they left you, but God will bring them back to
[1:48] Speaker 1: you born aloft in glory, as on royal thrones. What
[1:52] Speaker 1: he's saying is, I know that they were taken away
[1:55] Speaker 1: as these poor prisoners in degradation and humiliation. But now, oh,
[2:00] Speaker 1: when they come back on the highway that God has built,
[2:04] Speaker 1: they'll be like kings and princes on royal thrones. The
[2:10] Speaker 1: motif is God is going to build a highway upon
[2:16] Speaker 1: which his exiled people will come home. Okay, you say, well,
[2:23] Speaker 1: that's very interesting ancient history about Babylon and Israel and
[2:28] Speaker 1: the exiles coming back long ago. But why are we
[2:31] Speaker 1: reading this text and why am I preaching on it
[2:35] Speaker 1: for vent? Because exile everybody functions in the Bible as
[2:41] Speaker 1: a symbol of spiritual exile. So there were these literal
[2:47] Speaker 1: political exiles. But think of them now as symbolic of
[2:52] Speaker 1: all the ways that we tend to wander from God.
[2:57] Speaker 1: The Promised Land or the Holy Land represents friendship with God,
[3:01] Speaker 1: that we're in intimacy with Him, we're following his commands,
[3:04] Speaker 1: we're living as his friends, exile, slavery, all those ways
[3:11] Speaker 1: that we wander away from God, and we find ourselves,
[3:15] Speaker 1: spiritually speaking, in a distant land. Saint Augustine beautifully talks
[3:20] Speaker 1: about the land of unlikeness. So we're made in the
[3:26] Speaker 1: image and likeness of God, and we're meant to live
[3:29] Speaker 1: in accord with that, but we wander into this land
[3:32] Speaker 1: of dissimilitude, he says, the land of unlikeness. So, fellow sinners,
[3:40] Speaker 1: and this is a very important Advent theme, fellow sinners,
[3:44] Speaker 1: we are all exiles, every one of us in the
[3:49] Speaker 1: measure that we sin, in the measure that we are
[3:52] Speaker 1: stuck in the slavery of sin. We find ourselves in
[3:57] Speaker 1: a distant land, lonely, isolated, alienated. Remember the Great Advent him,
[4:06] Speaker 1: Oh Come, Oh Come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That
[4:12] Speaker 1: moren's in lonely exile here. That's the theme. So when
[4:17] Speaker 1: you hear that him, And trust me, you've heard it already,
[4:19] Speaker 1: probably during the Advent, and it's wonderful, of course, haunting melody,
[4:23] Speaker 1: beautiful words. That's what it's talking about. Oh, come, Emmanuel,
[4:30] Speaker 1: Ransom captive Israel, that morn's in lonely exile. What are
[4:34] Speaker 1: they asking for? Lord? When are you going to build
[4:37] Speaker 1: a highway so we can come back to you? That's
[4:43] Speaker 1: what Baruk is talking about. That's why we're reading this
[4:46] Speaker 1: text even now. Okay, let's put some meat on these bones. Maybe,
[4:51] Speaker 1: So what does this spiritual exile look like? Maybe better,
[4:56] Speaker 1: what does it feel like? Well, think of addiction, self absorption,
[5:05] Speaker 1: indifference to the things of God, materialism, moral relativism, inability
[5:12] Speaker 1: to forgive. Think of all of these as blocks, or
[5:18] Speaker 1: stay with the biblical imagery, think of them as great
[5:21] Speaker 1: mountains that are blocking our access to the promised land.
[5:26] Speaker 1: Or think of them as great valleys that are obstructing
[5:30] Speaker 1: and making difficult the journey back. What do we sear
[5:34] Speaker 1: in the prophet Isaiah, God's going to level the mountains,
[5:37] Speaker 1: He's going to fill in the valleys so that now
[5:40] Speaker 1: there's a nice, flat, straight highway to him. That's what
[5:46] Speaker 1: we're longing for. What we're begging for. Now, who's Jesus,
[5:53] Speaker 1: Oh interesting prophet? No, no, no, a compelling teacher from
[5:58] Speaker 1: long ago. No, no, was he about himself. I am
[6:02] Speaker 1: the Way, the truth, and the life. Stay with that
[6:06] Speaker 1: first one. I'm the way. I'm the highway, I'm the past,
[6:12] Speaker 1: I'm the route. Why did the Lord send Jesus into
[6:17] Speaker 1: our world that he might be the way back? So
[6:22] Speaker 1: if you feel like you're living in Babylon, you feel
[6:25] Speaker 1: like you're in slavery in Egypt, you're spiritually isolated, you
[6:29] Speaker 1: want to come home. The way has been laid out
[6:35] Speaker 1: before you, the building of the highway in a certain way.
[6:41] Speaker 1: It's done. It's done. Jesus is the way you want
[6:46] Speaker 1: to come home. And maybe again some listening to me
[6:49] Speaker 1: right now, maybe you feel I'm so far from God.
[6:55] Speaker 1: I've wandered so far away from the life of the Church.
[6:58] Speaker 1: I've not been in the sacraments, in ages and confession,
[7:01] Speaker 1: or the you Christ, and I just I'm so sunk
[7:04] Speaker 1: in my sin. There's no way, no, No. Advent's your time. Listen.
[7:10] Speaker 1: Advent is your time, and Jesus has been offered to
[7:15] Speaker 1: you as the way. He's the leveling of the mountains.
[7:19] Speaker 1: He's the filling in of the valleys. Walk behind him.
[7:25] Speaker 1: How often we hear that in the gospels. Don't we
[7:28] Speaker 1: come follow me, come after me. I'm the gate enter
[7:35] Speaker 1: by way of me. It's the same idea, he's the highway. Okay,
[7:42] Speaker 1: So that's one side of it if you want. There's
[7:44] Speaker 1: a lot of talk about God preparing a highway, but
[7:49] Speaker 1: there's another side to it, and we hear it in
[7:51] Speaker 1: the Gospel today, which is referring to John the Baptist,
[7:54] Speaker 1: who's a great advent figure. So he's describing his mission right,
[8:01] Speaker 1: and who is he? I'm the voice of one crying
[8:05] Speaker 1: out in the desert. Prepare the way of the Lord,
[8:10] Speaker 1: make straight his paths. And here it is. Every valley
[8:14] Speaker 1: shall be filled, every mountain shall be made low, All
[8:18] Speaker 1: flesh shall see the salvation of God. God provides a highway, Yes,
[8:23] Speaker 1: in Jesus. But is there also work for us to do?
[8:29] Speaker 1: Can I lay on you a good Catholic principle? God
[8:34] Speaker 1: created us without our cooperation. That's true. We weren't there
[8:38] Speaker 1: to cooperate. That was a sheer grace. But He can't
[8:42] Speaker 1: save us without our cooperation. Now, don't read that as well.
[8:47] Speaker 1: God's been difficult. It's just spiritual logic. See what's salvation
[8:52] Speaker 1: but the love for God. It's the awakening of love
[8:58] Speaker 1: that can only happen through an act of our freedom
[9:01] Speaker 1: and our cooperation. Yes, Jesus is there, He's the way.
[9:05] Speaker 1: But follow me now, you got to cooperate. You've got
[9:09] Speaker 1: to get on the path. So the other side of
[9:14] Speaker 1: the advent challenge everybody is we have to do some
[9:18] Speaker 1: highway building too. We've got to do some knocking down
[9:23] Speaker 1: of mountains and filling in of valleys. We have to
[9:27] Speaker 1: again prepare the way of the Lord, a highway now
[9:32] Speaker 1: to meet the highway that God has constructed. So can
[9:37] Speaker 1: I give you just a few minutes some suggestions? How
[9:43] Speaker 1: do you do this? How do you prepare? Pray? Number one?
[9:49] Speaker 1: Pray That means open your mind and your heart to God.
[9:53] Speaker 1: It means turn to God in conversation the way were
[9:59] Speaker 1: with a friend. Speak to God and you say, oh, Bishop,
[10:02] Speaker 1: I've been away from church for so long in the
[10:04] Speaker 1: sacraments and I haven't prayed in forever. Follow what jose
[10:09] Speaker 1: Murrayskuva said. If you don't know how to pray, all
[10:12] Speaker 1: you have to do is say Lord, I don't know
[10:15] Speaker 1: how to pray, and you're already praying. All right, It's
[10:21] Speaker 1: as simple as that. Turn to God, ask the blessed
[10:24] Speaker 1: mother to help, by the way, but turn to God,
[10:26] Speaker 1: say Lord, I don't even know how to pray, but
[10:29] Speaker 1: that bishop told me to pray. So what do I say?
[10:35] Speaker 1: You're already praying. Maybe there's that rosary that does gathering
[10:39] Speaker 1: dust somewhere in a drawer. Maybe your grandmother used to
[10:41] Speaker 1: pray it and you have it, but you've not prayed it.
[10:44] Speaker 1: Maybe it's hanging from your rear view mirror, but you haven't.
[10:47] Speaker 1: You haven't actually prayed it. Pray it this advent. Pray, pray,
[10:52] Speaker 1: Come back to Mass. Have you been away? And of
[10:54] Speaker 1: course a lot of Catholics have been away from Mass.
[10:57] Speaker 1: That's a sermon for another day. But here's your time.
[11:01] Speaker 1: Hear in the voice of the Lord saying, prepare the
[11:03] Speaker 1: way I laid out the highway Jesus, all right, get
[11:08] Speaker 1: on walk it, Go to Mass. Go to Mass. Here's
[11:14] Speaker 1: the second recommendation. If there's some addiction in your life,
[11:18] Speaker 1: and you know addiction, it's an ancient problem. They call
[11:21] Speaker 1: it concupiscence back in the old days. But addiction I
[11:24] Speaker 1: think we name it today. It's turning anything other than
[11:28] Speaker 1: God into God. And then you become obsessed with it
[11:31] Speaker 1: because it can't satisfy the longing of your heart. People
[11:34] Speaker 1: addicted to booze, into drugs, and to sex and the pornography.
[11:40] Speaker 1: It's rampant problem in our society. If there's an addiction
[11:44] Speaker 1: in your life, and I know you can't just snap
[11:46] Speaker 1: your fingers and goes away, but make a resolution this
[11:50] Speaker 1: advent to cut it out, to do something, to take
[11:54] Speaker 1: a step to turn your life over to God. Say Lord,
[11:58] Speaker 1: I'm in the grip of this thing and I can't
[12:01] Speaker 1: control it. I turn it over to you. Address an
[12:05] Speaker 1: addiction this advent. Third recommendation, If there's some besetting sin
[12:13] Speaker 1: in your life, do something about it this advent. Maybe
[12:19] Speaker 1: it's pride, you know. Then take the lowest place on
[12:23] Speaker 1: purpose this advent. You know what I mean. You'll find
[12:25] Speaker 1: a way in your life or your prize telling you, hey,
[12:28] Speaker 1: I'm going to do this. Do the opposite. Take the
[12:32] Speaker 1: lowest place. Maybe envies your problem. Find someone that you're
[12:38] Speaker 1: envious of, and on purpose, praise that person, say something
[12:42] Speaker 1: nice about him or her. Maybe avarice is your problem.
[12:48] Speaker 1: You know you like the things of the world too much.
[12:52] Speaker 1: Try some poverty this advent. Maybe give away some of
[12:56] Speaker 1: the things you have, Maybe find a way to literally
[13:00] Speaker 1: give money you have to the poor. Be generous. Now
[13:04] Speaker 1: there's a thousand more things. I could say, go through
[13:08] Speaker 1: the seven deadly sins. I just did three of them. There,
[13:11] Speaker 1: go through the seven deadly sins and say, Lord, he
[13:13] Speaker 1: probably all have a grip on me. Can I do
[13:15] Speaker 1: something to address this besetting sin? Do it? Do it?
[13:21] Speaker 1: This advantage I don't even put it off. I know,
[13:23] Speaker 1: I know, But this is the moment. The Lord has
[13:26] Speaker 1: built the highway, He's laid out Jesus is the way.
[13:31] Speaker 1: Come to meet him. Come to meet him. Knock down
[13:34] Speaker 1: mountains that are blocking the way, fill in valleys that
[13:37] Speaker 1: are blocking the way. And then you'll be ready, at
[13:42] Speaker 1: least more ready to meet the Lord when he comes.
[13:46] Speaker 1: Adventus and God bless you.

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