# Act Against Your Attachments - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 1 Aug 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73269765/act_against_your_attachments_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Please be with you friends. A couple summers ago I
[0:02] Speaker 1: had the great privilege of visiting in connection with a
[0:05] Speaker 1: film we're making, the sites connected to Saint Ignatius of Loola.
[0:09] Speaker 1: We went to the Basque country, to Iola, where he
[0:12] Speaker 1: was born and where he recuperated from his war wounds,
[0:16] Speaker 1: where he had his great conversion experience. We went to
[0:19] Speaker 1: Most Sarah, that wonderful benedictin monastery where he pledged his
[0:23] Speaker 1: life to Christ. We ended up in the rooms where
[0:27] Speaker 1: he died in Rome, right next to the great Church
[0:30] Speaker 1: of the jay Zu where he's buried. But for me,
[0:33] Speaker 1: the most moving place to visit was a little cave
[0:36] Speaker 1: in a town called Monresa on Race is not too
[0:39] Speaker 1: far from Barcelona, and the young Ignatius, after he's turned
[0:43] Speaker 1: his life over to Christ, spends about nine months literally
[0:47] Speaker 1: living in this cave in utter simplicity. He had been
[0:54] Speaker 1: obsessed as a young man with his appearance. He wanted
[0:59] Speaker 1: to be a courtier. He wanted to cut a dashing figure,
[1:04] Speaker 1: so trying to turn away from that, he kind of
[1:07] Speaker 1: let himself go. He let his hair grow, let his
[1:09] Speaker 1: fingernails grow. He lived in poverty and simplicity and fasting
[1:14] Speaker 1: for those nine months, he was often consumed with lust,
[1:18] Speaker 1: and so he lived in a austere celibacy for that time.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Since he was so obsessed with his reputation, he decided
[1:26] Speaker 1: to live for those months as a nobody, even as
[1:30] Speaker 1: worse than a nobody, because anyone seeing him would say, well,
[1:32] Speaker 1: who's that weirdo, who's that vagabond wandering around. That's how
[1:37] Speaker 1: he lived for those nine months, And out of that
[1:40] Speaker 1: experience came the famous spiritual exercises. If you go on
[1:46] Speaker 1: a Jesuit retreat to this day, you'll be taken through
[1:49] Speaker 1: the exercises that he composed while he was going through
[1:53] Speaker 1: that time at mon Resa. Now, I think the heart
[1:58] Speaker 1: of what he learned at that time, the heart of
[2:02] Speaker 1: what he teaches and the exercises, is this idea of detachment.
[2:10] Speaker 1: He was attached to many of the goods of the world.
[2:14] Speaker 1: I've named some of them, wealth and power and prestige
[2:17] Speaker 1: and cutting a dashing figure, all that. But if he
[2:23] Speaker 1: was to do the will of God, he knew he
[2:25] Speaker 1: had to become detached from those addictions and those obsessions.
[2:31] Speaker 1: So during those nine months, in a particularly intense way,
[2:35] Speaker 1: he engaged in this spiritual exercise of detachment. You know
[2:43] Speaker 1: what came out of it is a principle that's basic
[2:45] Speaker 1: to the exercises basic to Jesuit spirituality. He called it
[2:50] Speaker 1: the adire contra, which is Latin simply for to act against,
[2:56] Speaker 1: to do against. The idea is simple. If you're attached
[3:04] Speaker 1: or addicted to some worldly good, well then the best
[3:07] Speaker 1: thing is to act against it, is to press aggressively,
[3:11] Speaker 1: even in the opposite direction. Remember, long ago, the great
[3:17] Speaker 1: Greek philosopher Aristotle said, if a stick is bent this way,
[3:21] Speaker 1: and the idea is to straighten it out, you have
[3:24] Speaker 1: to kind of bend it back the other direction. You
[3:26] Speaker 1: have to have to bend it out of shape in
[3:28] Speaker 1: the other direction to bring it back online. So if
[3:32] Speaker 1: your spiritual life is disordered, like you're drawn to a
[3:35] Speaker 1: worldly good in an exaggerated way, well then you've got
[3:38] Speaker 1: to run in the other direction adure a contra. So,
[3:44] Speaker 1: for example, Ignatious teaches if sensual pleasure. Let's say that
[3:49] Speaker 1: the goods of eating and drinking are really important to you,
[3:53] Speaker 1: and you know, look at our culture today. There are
[3:55] Speaker 1: a lot of us who are preoccupied with eating and
[3:59] Speaker 1: drinking and good food and all that. Well, if that's
[4:02] Speaker 1: your hang up. Adure Contra, act against it. Fast. Why
[4:09] Speaker 1: is fasting so important in the spiritual order? Because we
[4:12] Speaker 1: you know, we hate this world and we hate a
[4:14] Speaker 1: sensual pleasure. No, no, no, it's this bent stick idea
[4:18] Speaker 1: that if you're exaggeratedly pulled in that direction, you've got
[4:21] Speaker 1: to go in the opposite direction, So you fast. Let's
[4:27] Speaker 1: say you're too caught up in nice things, you know,
[4:30] Speaker 1: being surrounded by the comforts of the world that become
[4:33] Speaker 1: too much of a preoccupation for you. Maybe you're spending
[4:37] Speaker 1: a lot of your waking hours obsessed with, you know,
[4:40] Speaker 1: making your life as comfortable as possible. Well, then Adure
[4:44] Speaker 1: Contra live as ignacious did not only am on Rasa,
[4:49] Speaker 1: but other points in his life on purpose, living in
[4:52] Speaker 1: radical simplicity and poverty. You know, to this day of
[4:56] Speaker 1: young Jesuit novices practice the they're given a little bit
[5:01] Speaker 1: of money and they're told to go on a kind
[5:03] Speaker 1: of pilgrimage. They got to get from point A to
[5:05] Speaker 1: point B, but relying not on their own resources, but
[5:09] Speaker 1: relying on the providence of God and the goodness of
[5:13] Speaker 1: people around them. So when you're too addicted to the
[5:17] Speaker 1: comfortable life, you actively embrace an uncomfortable life. I suppose
[5:24] Speaker 1: you're too attached to money. There are many of us
[5:26] Speaker 1: in our culture who are in that situation. Become a
[5:31] Speaker 1: kind of addiction. I never have enough of it, so
[5:34] Speaker 1: I strive and strive and strive. People that invest in
[5:37] Speaker 1: the stock market, they do fine, but it's not enough.
[5:41] Speaker 1: They've got big bank accounts, but they're not big enough.
[5:44] Speaker 1: Let's say money has become your preoccupation, Well, Adre contra,
[5:51] Speaker 1: give a lot of it away. For how many people
[5:54] Speaker 1: in the spiritual life you look at over the history
[5:56] Speaker 1: of the saints, you'll find this move. Maybe friends of
[6:00] Speaker 1: Vesizi most famously, I mean literally handing over all of
[6:05] Speaker 1: his possessions, including the clothes on his back. Give away
[6:10] Speaker 1: your money, give away your material things. So that's become
[6:12] Speaker 1: too much an obsession to you. Suppose, like Ignation Saviola,
[6:20] Speaker 1: who wanted to be the dashing courtier, you're preoccupied with honor,
[6:25] Speaker 1: with being noticed. Everyone's looking at me. Well, I mean,
[6:30] Speaker 1: there are a lot of us in our in our
[6:32] Speaker 1: culture today who are preoccupied with this. I want to
[6:38] Speaker 1: be in the first place. I want to be the
[6:41] Speaker 1: one that's that's in the headlines. I want to be
[6:42] Speaker 1: the one who's noticed. Well, if that's your hang up,
[6:45] Speaker 1: adurey contra, actively seek obscurity, actually seek not to be noticed.
[6:52] Speaker 1: Go in the opposite direction. Okay, adurey contra in service
[6:58] Speaker 1: of detachment, which is fine, in service of doing God's will.
[7:02] Speaker 1: I want to be really clear about that. I want
[7:04] Speaker 1: to say that again, so we don't get hung up
[7:06] Speaker 1: on this as some kind of puritanical program. It's not
[7:09] Speaker 1: that at all. It's the adure contra so as to
[7:13] Speaker 1: get away from attachments which you're preventing me from doing
[7:18] Speaker 1: God's will. Because what matters is God's will. That's why
[7:22] Speaker 1: Ignatius says at the beginning of the exercises, Lord, whether
[7:25] Speaker 1: I have a long life for short life, I don't
[7:27] Speaker 1: care whether I'm rich or poor. I don't care whether
[7:30] Speaker 1: they love me or hate me. I don't care as
[7:32] Speaker 1: long as I'm doing your will. The whole purpose of
[7:35] Speaker 1: the exercises is to find that will, to discern the
[7:39] Speaker 1: will of God, but to follow it, I've got to
[7:43] Speaker 1: be detached. To be detached, I've got an adure contra.
[7:48] Speaker 1: That's the program. Okay. All of that is an introduction
[7:52] Speaker 1: to this famous story we see in the Gospel today,
[7:57] Speaker 1: Jesus is at a banquet and you know, not a
[8:00] Speaker 1: little family supper, but a bank with a lot of
[8:03] Speaker 1: you know, rich and famous people there. And you know,
[8:06] Speaker 1: we have our version of that when you go to
[8:08] Speaker 1: a you know, a formal dinner and all the you know,
[8:12] Speaker 1: the insiders are there, all the big wheels are there.
[8:17] Speaker 1: What was he notice? He noticed how people are actively
[8:21] Speaker 1: looking for the most prominent place at the banquet. And again,
[8:25] Speaker 1: you know, a fellow sinners, right, we know how this works.
[8:28] Speaker 1: You come in the room, a lot of famous people there,
[8:30] Speaker 1: and can I get that front table? Can I be
[8:34] Speaker 1: with you know, the glitterati. Can I be with the
[8:37] Speaker 1: rich and the famous people? Can I jockey for position
[8:40] Speaker 1: so that everybody notices me? I mean, we play this
[8:43] Speaker 1: game all the time. Jesus says, when you're invited to
[8:51] Speaker 1: a wedding banquet, don't recline at the place of honor. Rather,
[8:58] Speaker 1: when you're invited, go and take the lowest place. What
[9:03] Speaker 1: is he talking about, Avon le Lettre right long before ignacious,
[9:09] Speaker 1: He's talking about the adre contra. If this is your temptation,
[9:14] Speaker 1: and it is for a lot of us, then purposely
[9:18] Speaker 1: and actively move in the opposite direction, take the lowest place.
[9:23] Speaker 1: How often when you come into a room like that,
[9:25] Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about, and you feel the
[9:27] Speaker 1: temptation I gotta be number one here? Can you say,
[9:32] Speaker 1: you know what? On purpose, I'm going to sit at
[9:34] Speaker 1: table one hundred and thirty five. I'm going to make
[9:38] Speaker 1: myself obscure. I'm going to make sure that they don't
[9:41] Speaker 1: notice me. Think of how many times, how much energy
[9:49] Speaker 1: is spent in our lives jockeying for position. What if
[9:55] Speaker 1: we said I'm going to opt out, I'm just not
[10:01] Speaker 1: gonna play the game. Well, one thing, you'll throw everybody off.
[10:06] Speaker 1: Believe me, they'll wonder what is going on. You'll throw
[10:10] Speaker 1: everybody off. But also you're gonna find something like freedom
[10:18] Speaker 1: if we get that monkey of attachment off our backs.
[10:24] Speaker 1: Oh I need to be more wealthy, I need to
[10:27] Speaker 1: be more powerful, I need to be more honored. It's
[10:30] Speaker 1: an addiction, and our language addiction is the best way
[10:34] Speaker 1: to translate the spiritual principle. I think you know addictions
[10:38] Speaker 1: work is you get something and you get a buzz
[10:41] Speaker 1: from it. This is booze, this is the drugs, this
[10:43] Speaker 1: is sex, This is honor, this is money, whatever it is.
[10:48] Speaker 1: But then it wears off. Well, I gotta get more
[10:52] Speaker 1: of it, and then you get the buzz, but it
[10:54] Speaker 1: wears off even faster. Then you got to get more
[10:57] Speaker 1: of it, more of it, more of it. Before you
[10:58] Speaker 1: know it, your whole life is preoccupied with attaining these
[11:04] Speaker 1: worldly goods. And what that's doing everybody is it's blocking
[11:07] Speaker 1: your access to the will of God. I what a
[11:12] Speaker 1: liberation if you can finally say, you know what, I'm
[11:18] Speaker 1: not gonna play the game. I'm out. You know, I mean,
[11:22] Speaker 1: think a lot about this with social media because and
[11:24] Speaker 1: I know I'm on social media right now. You know,
[11:26] Speaker 1: if you're watching this sermon, I get it. It's good
[11:28] Speaker 1: in many ways, but it's it becomes its own addiction too.
[11:33] Speaker 1: It draws us into itself. And the liberation that comes
[11:36] Speaker 1: when I can just say, you know what, I'm out.
[11:40] Speaker 1: If you want to understand religious vows, think of it
[11:43] Speaker 1: along these lines. It's exactly what it is. You say,
[11:46] Speaker 1: why would these people have poverty and chastity and obedience?
[11:50] Speaker 1: Why would they do that because they realize they're in
[11:53] Speaker 1: the grip of addictions. Why would you take a vowve poverty.
[11:56] Speaker 1: So you're just you're out of the game of questing quies,
[12:00] Speaker 1: questioning for more and more wealth. Why would you accept
[12:02] Speaker 1: somebody like chastity or celibacy because you don't want to
[12:05] Speaker 1: be in that game of constantly searching for that pleasure.
[12:10] Speaker 1: Why obedience? Well, because look, I'm looking for power and
[12:14] Speaker 1: prestige and I'm number one all the time. What if
[12:16] Speaker 1: I just opted out of that game and I said,
[12:19] Speaker 1: I know, I'm willing to be to be told what
[12:22] Speaker 1: to do. I'm willing to be put in my place
[12:24] Speaker 1: by somebody else. That's what happened to Ignacious in Monresa,
[12:30] Speaker 1: letting his fingernails grow and his hair grow. I'm out
[12:34] Speaker 1: of the game, That's what he was saying. I'm out
[12:36] Speaker 1: of the game of who's the top courtier? Living in
[12:40] Speaker 1: poverty and simplicity. I'm out of the game of who's rising,
[12:43] Speaker 1: who's fallen, who's richer? Forget it, forget it. So think
[12:49] Speaker 1: of this simple image. Everybody, they're all jocking for the
[12:52] Speaker 1: highest position. Jesus says, hey, you know what, take the
[12:55] Speaker 1: lowest place because you're probably gonna find let's be honest,
[13:00] Speaker 1: seeing people on table one thirty five, am I right,
[13:03] Speaker 1: you know you're up a table number one, You're with
[13:06] Speaker 1: a lot of obsessives. You're with a lot of weirdos
[13:10] Speaker 1: and obsessives. To table number one because they're all caught
[13:12] Speaker 1: in this. They're not that interesting again, am I right?
[13:16] Speaker 1: They're not that interesting? Go to table one thirty five.
[13:19] Speaker 1: They're a lot more because they're more real. And then secondly,
[13:22] Speaker 1: you're going to be breathing much freer spiritual error at
[13:28] Speaker 1: table one thirty five. Take the lowest place. It's actually
[13:33] Speaker 1: a lot more fun and God bless you.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.