# The Heart of Christianity - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 16 Aug 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73911060/the_heart_of_christianity_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends may come to this eighteenth
[0:02] Speaker 1: Sunday of ordinary time, and I want to focus on
[0:05] Speaker 1: the second reading, which is from Saint Paul. And you know,
[0:08] Speaker 1: I don't preach about Paul enough. He's the first really
[0:11] Speaker 1: great genius theologian of our tradition. And we're reading from
[0:14] Speaker 1: Romans here, especially Romans chapter eight. Get out your Bibles.
[0:21] Speaker 1: And you know, reading Romans right through is a little
[0:24] Speaker 1: complicated without a good commentary, but find chapter eight. Read
[0:28] Speaker 1: that because it represents the kind of conclusion or climax
[0:31] Speaker 1: to an argument Paul's been making. You know, Paul is
[0:35] Speaker 1: a man of great passion, obviously, but he's also a
[0:36] Speaker 1: man of great intellect, and he was formed in the scriptures,
[0:40] Speaker 1: of course, Hebrew scriptures, but also in Greek thought, Greek philosophy,
[0:44] Speaker 1: and especially Greek rhetoric. And you can sense, especially in Romans,
[0:49] Speaker 1: Paul almost like a lawyer laying out his case point
[0:53] Speaker 1: by point. Well, Romans eight represents a sort of culminating
[0:56] Speaker 1: point in argument, and the reading for today is that's
[1:00] Speaker 1: the rhetorical, very poetic high point of that conclusion. So
[1:06] Speaker 1: we got to pay attention. This is one of the
[1:08] Speaker 1: really great you know, theologians of the Church naming what's
[1:12] Speaker 1: essential to Christianity. Now, I want to begin with the
[1:15] Speaker 1: last line of our passes for today. After listing all
[1:19] Speaker 1: sorts of things that could separate us from God's love,
[1:23] Speaker 1: Paul says this, none of this can separate us from
[1:29] Speaker 1: the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hmmm,
[1:34] Speaker 1: that's the gospel, everybody, if you want, none of these
[1:38] Speaker 1: things and I'll go through them, can separate us from
[1:41] Speaker 1: the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now,
[1:45] Speaker 1: in his Greek Christos Jesus curios, he would have said,
[1:50] Speaker 1: but I always think with Paul, you know, shape by
[1:52] Speaker 1: the Hebrew scriptures, he was thinking, Mashiach Yeshua, a do
[1:57] Speaker 1: nai the anointed one Maschiak, that meant the new David,
[2:02] Speaker 1: the new King, the king, new David Jesus. And then
[2:07] Speaker 1: he calls him a do Nai. Now that's saying a
[2:12] Speaker 1: lot for someone trained in the in the Jewish tradition,
[2:15] Speaker 1: because ado nai was a term used of God himself.
[2:18] Speaker 1: When you wouldn't use the sacred name of God, the tetragrammaton,
[2:22] Speaker 1: you'd use instead this term Adnai Lord, Christ Jesus our Lord.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Now with that in mind. Go right back to the
[2:34] Speaker 1: beginning of Romans, when Paul's introducing himself and he says this,
[2:39] Speaker 1: I'm here to declare the gospel concerning his son descended
[2:44] Speaker 1: from David. According to the flesh, there's mashiak. There's David,
[2:48] Speaker 1: the anointed one and declared son of God with power
[2:51] Speaker 1: according to the spirit of holiness. Listen, now, by resurrection
[2:56] Speaker 1: from the dead. Then the phrase Jesus Christ our Lord.
[3:01] Speaker 1: There is again Yeshua mashiak a do nai Jesus Christos curios.
[3:07] Speaker 1: What's the hinge? What's the hinge upon which all this turns?
[3:11] Speaker 1: There's that little phrase, by resurrection from the dead. Now
[3:17] Speaker 1: there it is, everybody. That's the heart of Paul's teaching.
[3:20] Speaker 1: That's the heart of Christianity. That's if you want the gospel.
[3:25] Speaker 1: That's the good news that you won. Gellion Jesus done
[3:31] Speaker 1: to death by the powers that be at his time,
[3:36] Speaker 1: everything in the world came at him. But through the
[3:40] Speaker 1: power of God raised from the dead. He is anointed one,
[3:45] Speaker 1: Christos mashiach, and he's Lord, He's a do Nai. That's
[3:53] Speaker 1: the gospel. Everybody, you know, look through Paul's writings, you'll
[3:57] Speaker 1: find it's almost like a refrain, almost calm, so often
[4:01] Speaker 1: repeated anostasis, anostysis, anostasis, it means literally standing up again, resurrection, resurrection.
[4:11] Speaker 1: It was so central to his preaching that some people thought, oh,
[4:14] Speaker 1: he's declaring a new god called anostasis. He was declaring
[4:19] Speaker 1: the God of Israel, who has manifested his power in
[4:24] Speaker 1: this standing up again, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
[4:30] Speaker 1: And see upon that, everybody, everything turns for Paul, this
[4:37] Speaker 1: was a revolution, This was a remaking of the Old world.
[4:43] Speaker 1: You know, look at the Book of Revelation, all those
[4:45] Speaker 1: texts about, you know, the destruction of the old world
[4:48] Speaker 1: and the stars falling and the seas churning and earthquakes
[4:51] Speaker 1: and so on. Well, that's symbolic talk about the end
[4:56] Speaker 1: of the old world. The old world is giving way
[5:01] Speaker 1: because of the earthquake of the resurrection, a new world
[5:04] Speaker 1: has been revealed. Why does Saint Peter talk about anticipating
[5:09] Speaker 1: a new heavens and a new Earth because he's seen
[5:12] Speaker 1: the old heavens and earth shaken questioned, and now we're
[5:17] Speaker 1: waiting the full revelation of a new heavens and a
[5:21] Speaker 1: new Earth. That's the gospel now I'm going to come
[5:26] Speaker 1: back to our passage in chapter eight, because what does
[5:29] Speaker 1: Paul see in this He sees, this is the source
[5:35] Speaker 1: of peace. This is the shalom. Right he was a great,
[5:40] Speaker 1: beautiful Hebrew term. This is the Shalome that we all want,
[5:44] Speaker 1: and it's going to come as a function of the
[5:48] Speaker 1: resurrection of Jesus from the dead, of this remaking of
[5:52] Speaker 1: the whole world. Okay, So with that in mind, let's
[5:56] Speaker 1: go back to this passage, which again is rhetoric, so beautiful, poetic.
[6:01] Speaker 1: Even Paul says, what will separate us from the love
[6:07] Speaker 1: of Christ? Will anguish or distress or persecution or famine
[6:15] Speaker 1: or nakedness or peril or the sword boy saying a
[6:20] Speaker 1: mouthful there isn't he go through these? These are all
[6:24] Speaker 1: things in his time and ours that would tempt us
[6:28] Speaker 1: to say, there's no God. There's no God that cares
[6:32] Speaker 1: for me, There's no God of love who's looking out
[6:34] Speaker 1: for me. Anguish or distress. I mean, we live wh
[6:38] Speaker 1: Auden said that in the age of anxiety, no way. Well,
[6:41] Speaker 1: Paul knew about anguish too, But I think, especially in
[6:43] Speaker 1: our time this sort of existential angst, a lot of
[6:47] Speaker 1: people feel the sense of meaninglessness, purposelessness, Well, that can
[6:52] Speaker 1: seem to separate us from God. How about persecution? You know,
[6:57] Speaker 1: there are milder forms of persecution that exist even our
[7:00] Speaker 1: Western culture. But gosh, go around the world today. Can
[7:03] Speaker 1: I suggest in the Middle East? Can I suggest in
[7:05] Speaker 1: places like Nigeria? Can I suggest in places like China?
[7:09] Speaker 1: Is there a direct and violent persecution of Christians? You
[7:13] Speaker 1: bet there is? So as Paul sensed it in his
[7:16] Speaker 1: own life, we still sense it today. How about famine
[7:20] Speaker 1: or nakedness? Think of people going through enormous suffering because
[7:25] Speaker 1: of political or economic circumstances. Paul knew about this too.
[7:29] Speaker 1: He talks about going, you know, for days without eating
[7:32] Speaker 1: and so on. Peril or the sword? Did Paul know
[7:37] Speaker 1: about peril? Yeah, he talks about being shipwrecked the sword. Yeah,
[7:42] Speaker 1: he eventually died by the sword. He was decapitated, he
[7:45] Speaker 1: was stoned, and he was whipped. Yeah. I mean Christians
[7:51] Speaker 1: from his time to our own face this kind of
[7:54] Speaker 1: this kind of pain. Well, we're tempted to say, what
[8:00] Speaker 1: does it all mean that? How can God even exists?
[8:03] Speaker 1: Doesn't all this separate us from his love? Paul's answer
[8:08] Speaker 1: is no, Now, why listen to him. No, in all
[8:13] Speaker 1: these things we conquer overwhelmingly, how through Him who loved us.
[8:22] Speaker 1: What this possibly mean? It means this Jesus goes into
[8:30] Speaker 1: all of it. Now, who's Jesus, Not just another Jeremiah,
[8:33] Speaker 1: another Isaiah, another great you know figure. No, No, he's
[8:36] Speaker 1: God from God, light from light, true God, from true God.
[8:39] Speaker 1: He's the Son of God. And the Son of God
[8:44] Speaker 1: goes into anguish. Think of the cross now, ever, Paul says,
[8:50] Speaker 1: I know one thing, Christ in him crucified. Think of
[8:54] Speaker 1: Christ on the cross anguish. Talk about peril, talk about famine,
[8:59] Speaker 1: talk about thirst, talk about being rejected by your own followers,
[9:04] Speaker 1: talk about being mocked, talk about being the victim of
[9:07] Speaker 1: institutional injustice, talk about the worst kind of persecution possible. Well,
[9:13] Speaker 1: the Son of God ventured into all of that, took
[9:18] Speaker 1: all of that on. Now listen, here's the hinge point.
[9:22] Speaker 1: And in the Resurrection, in the Anostosis, he conquered all
[9:30] Speaker 1: of it, showed indeed that God's love is more powerful
[9:36] Speaker 1: than any of it. This is such an important point. Everyone, Yes,
[9:41] Speaker 1: in the Eschaton, all that will go away, you know,
[9:45] Speaker 1: every tiar we wiped away. That's our great hope. These
[9:48] Speaker 1: things don't go away while we're in this world, but
[9:53] Speaker 1: they do not have the final word. And there is
[9:56] Speaker 1: a love that is more powerful than these things. And again,
[10:02] Speaker 1: in all these things, and Paul experienced them all himself,
[10:05] Speaker 1: we conquer overwhelmingly through Him who loved us. It's not
[10:10] Speaker 1: by my own wit and power and capacity that I
[10:18] Speaker 1: conquer these things. No, No, it's in Christ's victory that
[10:23] Speaker 1: we find victory. Now he goes on, I would say,
[10:27] Speaker 1: almost ecstatically, here it's Paul the poet. Listen to him,
[10:31] Speaker 1: for I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
[10:36] Speaker 1: nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,
[10:41] Speaker 1: nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be
[10:45] Speaker 1: able to separate us. Listen from the love of God
[10:48] Speaker 1: in Christ, Jesus, our Lord, Chris Tu Siezu's curios mashiyak
[10:54] Speaker 1: Yeshua adl Nai. What's he doing here with this list?
[11:01] Speaker 1: He's laying out, if I put this way, the parameters
[11:04] Speaker 1: of his cosmology. We all have a cosmology, like a
[11:07] Speaker 1: basic view of the world. So we have a kind
[11:10] Speaker 1: of Einsteinian or maybe now even post Einsteinian cosmology. There
[11:14] Speaker 1: used to be a Newtonian cosmology. Paul had his own.
[11:18] Speaker 1: He had kind of a vision of what gave structure
[11:20] Speaker 1: to life. Now listen to again. Neither death nor life.
[11:24] Speaker 1: All right, it's still I mean, one of the great
[11:27] Speaker 1: realities of life, that we live and that we die.
[11:32] Speaker 1: Neither one can separate us from Christ. Nothing in this life,
[11:36] Speaker 1: and neither our death can separate us. Why. Because he's
[11:41] Speaker 1: risen from the dead. He's the conqueror of both life
[11:45] Speaker 1: and death. Listen, nor angels nor principalities. Well, here's part
[11:51] Speaker 1: of Paul's cosmos that above this visible world, there's an
[11:56] Speaker 1: invisible world of spiritual powers. Did Jesus do battle with them? Huh?
[12:04] Speaker 1: Can't read the gospels without that, It doesn't make any
[12:06] Speaker 1: sense without them. In fact, before he commences his public ministry,
[12:10] Speaker 1: what does he do. He battles with Satan, the dark
[12:14] Speaker 1: invisible powers that stand behind the dark visible powers of
[12:18] Speaker 1: this world. Okay, that's the biblical cosmology. Well, neither angels
[12:23] Speaker 1: or principalities can separate us. Why because through the cross
[12:27] Speaker 1: and resurrection he defeated them, nor present things nor future things.
[12:33] Speaker 1: It's interesting, here's the parameter of time. Right, there's the
[12:37] Speaker 1: present and then there's the future that we don't see,
[12:39] Speaker 1: we don't know for sure. Can both separate us from Christ? Yeah?
[12:44] Speaker 1: Because the present I can be so caught up in
[12:46] Speaker 1: my obligations and so on. Can the future? Yeah, because
[12:50] Speaker 1: I live in constant anxiety or fear about it. Paul's
[12:54] Speaker 1: point is in the Resurrection, he's the lord of both
[12:57] Speaker 1: the president and the future. Don't worry about it. Behind
[13:01] Speaker 1: all the preoccupations of the president. Well, there's there's Christ
[13:03] Speaker 1: in his call the future. It doesn't belong to me,
[13:06] Speaker 1: It belongs to him. He's the lord of both the
[13:09] Speaker 1: present and the future. Nor height nor depth. Interesting, think
[13:14] Speaker 1: of what's highest, what's deepest. In Paul's cosmology, the heights
[13:19] Speaker 1: would have been, you know, the realm of the of
[13:21] Speaker 1: the angels and the a, the arena beyond the visible world.
[13:26] Speaker 1: We got our own version of that. Think of the
[13:28] Speaker 1: infinite expanse of the of the universe going beyond this world,
[13:32] Speaker 1: the depth, you know, the toughest, darkest times of life. Well,
[13:38] Speaker 1: is he the lord of the heights and of the depths? Yeah? Yeah,
[13:43] Speaker 1: The Resurrection shows he's a Nay, he's curious. He's lord
[13:47] Speaker 1: of all these things. Look how it ends nor any
[13:51] Speaker 1: other creature, will be able to separate us from the
[13:54] Speaker 1: love of God. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing stands between us
[14:01] Speaker 1: and the victorious Christ, who took upon himself all the
[14:07] Speaker 1: anguish and distress and persecution and darkness of the world
[14:12] Speaker 1: and conquered it in the Resurrection. We don't have to
[14:17] Speaker 1: be afraid. We've been liberated. We found redemption, we found salvation. This, everybody,
[14:26] Speaker 1: is the good News. Thank God, bless you.

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