# Love as God Loves - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 17 Aug 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73911052/love_as_god_loves_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you, friends, we continue our reading of
[0:02] Speaker 1: the marvelous Sermon on the Mount. We're in the heart
[0:05] Speaker 1: of chapter five. I'd just recommend to you get out
[0:08] Speaker 1: your bibles. Matthew five, six and seven is the central
[0:12] Speaker 1: teaching of Jesus, probably what he would typically teach as
[0:16] Speaker 1: he made his way around the countryside, but it's gathered
[0:19] Speaker 1: here in one place for our contemplation. Here's I think
[0:23] Speaker 1: a key now to reading the Sermon on the Mount
[0:26] Speaker 1: is we can't read it as just one sort of
[0:29] Speaker 1: moral philosophy among many. So you know, everyone from Plato
[0:33] Speaker 1: and Aristotle all the way up through Kant and Hegel
[0:37] Speaker 1: and John Dewey have a moral philosophy, here's our understanding
[0:41] Speaker 1: of how humans ought to behave. Or they have a
[0:44] Speaker 1: political philosophy, here's the way we think society ought to
[0:47] Speaker 1: be organized. That's true again, from Plato through Karl Marx
[0:51] Speaker 1: and everybody in between. And they say, well, here's Jesus
[0:54] Speaker 1: ethical teaching, here's jesus political philosophy.
[0:58] Speaker 2: That's precisely the wrong way to read it.
[1:00] Speaker 1: Because the one thing you'll notice, I think is no
[1:03] Speaker 1: one sounds like Jesus, and I mean ancient modern I
[1:07] Speaker 1: mean religious people, non religious people, no philosopher, no ethician.
[1:12] Speaker 2: Sounds like Jesus.
[1:15] Speaker 1: Jesus, in fact, sounds a little bit crazy. Name another
[1:19] Speaker 1: moral philosopher who says, I say to you, offer no
[1:22] Speaker 1: resistance to one who's evil. I remember some years ago
[1:26] Speaker 1: when Christopher Hitchins was all the rage, you know, the
[1:28] Speaker 1: famous atheist, and he just you know, took Jesus to
[1:31] Speaker 1: task for that, Like, what do you mean, don't resist evil?
[1:34] Speaker 1: That's seems the worst thing he could possibly say. If
[1:37] Speaker 1: great evils being done, well, of course he should resist it.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Someone strikes you on the right cheek, well turn the
[1:42] Speaker 1: other one as well. Name one other moral philosopher, ethician,
[1:47] Speaker 1: political figure who would say such a thing. Anyone wants
[1:51] Speaker 1: to go to law with you over your tunic, hand
[1:53] Speaker 1: over your cloak as well.
[1:55] Speaker 2: Well, this sounds like like lunacy.
[1:59] Speaker 1: And then President, you've heard and said you shall love
[2:02] Speaker 1: your neighbor, hate your enemy.
[2:03] Speaker 2: I say to you, love your enemies.
[2:06] Speaker 1: I said, mind you, Jesus is coming out of this
[2:09] Speaker 1: great Jewish tradition, which is a very ethical, very morally
[2:13] Speaker 1: astute tradition. Would anyone that preceded him in his own
[2:18] Speaker 1: tradition have said something like that, love.
[2:21] Speaker 2: Even your enemies.
[2:22] Speaker 1: No, I mean love your neighbors, love your friends, stand
[2:26] Speaker 1: athwart your enemies.
[2:29] Speaker 2: This is a deeply strange teaching. That's what I want
[2:32] Speaker 2: you to see. Now.
[2:33] Speaker 1: Why Because he's not trading an ordinary moral thought here.
[2:41] Speaker 1: He's certainly not trying to lay out a political program,
[2:44] Speaker 1: whether that's you know, Plato's Republic, or it's Thomas Jefferson's America,
[2:49] Speaker 1: or it's Karl Marx's communism or whatever it is. Oh,
[2:53] Speaker 1: then there's Jesus political program. Well, no, it's not like
[2:55] Speaker 1: that at all. It's something qualitatively different. What's the key, Well,
[3:02] Speaker 1: I mentioned it last week. I'll say it again. Be
[3:07] Speaker 1: perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. See what's Jesus
[3:14] Speaker 1: interested in. It's not primarily making us ethically upright. I
[3:19] Speaker 1: mean fine, of course, it's better than not being ethically upright.
[3:21] Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
[3:24] Speaker 1: He's not primarily interested in, you know, creating the right
[3:27] Speaker 1: political program. Again, I'd prefer a just political program.
[3:31] Speaker 2: To an unjust one.
[3:32] Speaker 1: But that's not what he's primarily interested in. What he's
[3:36] Speaker 1: interested in is divinization. Divinization that we become conformed to
[3:48] Speaker 1: God's way of being the Church Fathers. I've quoted this before.
[3:53] Speaker 1: So day was fit with homo fear at DAOs. God
[3:57] Speaker 1: became man that he might become God. Extraordinary claim that
[4:03] Speaker 1: goes right back to the earliest of the Church Fathers.
[4:06] Speaker 1: The purpose of the incarnation God becomes one of us,
[4:09] Speaker 1: that human nature might be lifted up to.
[4:12] Speaker 2: Share in God's own life.
[4:16] Speaker 1: Okay, if that's the game, and not primarily just regular
[4:20] Speaker 1: ethics or ordinary politics. If that's the game, what's God like?
[4:28] Speaker 1: What's the nature of God's perfection? Well, here's another clue
[4:36] Speaker 1: that you may be children of your heavenly father. Listen
[4:39] Speaker 1: for he makes his son to rise on the bad
[4:43] Speaker 1: and the good, and causes rain to fall on the
[4:47] Speaker 1: just and the unjust. The sun shines, Why, it's its nature,
[4:58] Speaker 1: that's all the son knows how to do. Does the
[5:02] Speaker 1: sun say, well, let me check first if you're worthy.
[5:04] Speaker 2: Of my warmth and my light. No, it just.
[5:08] Speaker 1: Shines on good people. Uh huh, it's shone on Mother Teresa.
[5:14] Speaker 1: But it's shown on Hitler too. He makes his sun
[5:18] Speaker 1: to shine on the good and the bad.
[5:20] Speaker 2: A leg God's love.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Listen, now, is not something that is doled out according
[5:27] Speaker 1: to our categories of justice. Well, that person doesn't deserve
[5:33] Speaker 1: the divine love.
[5:34] Speaker 2: Come on.
[5:36] Speaker 1: That person. Yeah, that person does. That's a good person.
[5:39] Speaker 1: She deserves the divine love. Not that guy. Well see
[5:42] Speaker 1: that's how we think, that's how we think and operate.
[5:47] Speaker 1: Is I'll quote T. S. Elliott, measure out my love
[5:50] Speaker 1: with coffee spoons. I'll give a little bit if you
[5:53] Speaker 1: earned it. You were good to me, you were kind
[5:56] Speaker 1: to me, you were just to me. So I'm gonna
[5:58] Speaker 1: measure out a little bit of my love and affection
[6:01] Speaker 1: to you. You've not been kind to me that I
[6:04] Speaker 1: had it with you, pal, You're getting none of my
[6:08] Speaker 1: love and attention. See that's our sinful sense of what
[6:14] Speaker 1: justice is. But that's not how God loves.
[6:18] Speaker 2: See.
[6:19] Speaker 1: Let me make a metaphysical point here. God is not
[6:23] Speaker 1: one being among many. So all of us, we all
[6:26] Speaker 1: influence each other. We both move and are moved. Right,
[6:29] Speaker 1: I influence, I am influenced. That's the way things work
[6:32] Speaker 1: in the world. But God is not a being in
[6:35] Speaker 1: the world. God is the creative ground of all that exists.
[6:40] Speaker 1: God is the unmoved mover, He's the uncaused cause.
[6:45] Speaker 2: See what that means.
[6:46] Speaker 1: That means his love is not predicated upon some cause
[6:51] Speaker 1: extraneous to itself. I will love you because I will
[6:55] Speaker 1: love you in the measure that I will love you
[6:58] Speaker 1: under these conditions.
[7:00] Speaker 2: So that's how we creatures love each other. But that's
[7:02] Speaker 2: not how God operates.
[7:03] Speaker 1: And Jesus is saying, I don't want you just messing
[7:06] Speaker 1: around with Plato, Aristotle, Karl Marx, or Thomas Jefferson, because
[7:11] Speaker 1: they're dealing within a purely natural framework. No, No, I
[7:16] Speaker 1: want you to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
[7:21] Speaker 2: I listen again.
[7:23] Speaker 1: He shifts the metaphor, he causes he God causes the
[7:27] Speaker 1: rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Now,
[7:32] Speaker 1: mind you, rain is not a bad thing here. These
[7:33] Speaker 1: are desert people. So the rain that was great, Like
[7:37] Speaker 1: when the years I lived in California, we loved it
[7:38] Speaker 1: when it rained.
[7:39] Speaker 2: That was a sign of wow. Finally, finally it's raining.
[7:42] Speaker 1: So God makes his refreshing rain to fall on those
[7:47] Speaker 1: that deserve it. No, he makes it fall on the
[7:52] Speaker 1: just and the unjust. Why because that's his nature. God
[7:58] Speaker 1: is love, we hear, That's all he knows how to do.
[8:01] Speaker 1: He doesn't play the game of conditioned love love parceled
[8:06] Speaker 1: out love and bits and pieces love.
[8:09] Speaker 2: If you love me.
[8:13] Speaker 1: And we are meant to be perfect as our heavenly
[8:17] Speaker 1: father is perfect. Okay, everybody, with that all in mind,
[8:23] Speaker 1: now revisit these particular prescriptions. You've heard it said, an
[8:31] Speaker 1: eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Well, yeah,
[8:34] Speaker 1: that's old fashioned justice. Hey, you harm me, I'll harm you.
[8:39] Speaker 1: You know you're good to me. I'll be good to you.
[8:41] Speaker 1: You take a tooth of mine, I'll take a tooth
[8:43] Speaker 1: of yours. That's old fashioned justice and the kind of
[8:47] Speaker 1: sinful finite order. But see, I say, love your enemies,
[8:54] Speaker 1: and if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn
[8:56] Speaker 1: to give him the other.
[8:57] Speaker 2: Well, what are you talking about.
[8:58] Speaker 1: That's crazy? Yes, yes, it is a little crazy, because
[9:03] Speaker 1: I want you, Jesus says, to be divinized and to
[9:07] Speaker 1: love precisely in.
[9:09] Speaker 2: The manner that God loves.
[9:12] Speaker 1: So someone wants to go to law with you over
[9:14] Speaker 1: your tunic, Well that's an act of great aggression. The
[9:19] Speaker 1: implication here probably it's a poor person that's not been
[9:23] Speaker 1: able to pay a debt and so he's being sued
[9:26] Speaker 1: for the code.
[9:28] Speaker 2: On his back.
[9:29] Speaker 1: See, that's a very aggressive move legally, it's like someone
[9:32] Speaker 1: striking you physically. They're striking you here.
[9:35] Speaker 2: Legally, someone does that to you, won Would we say, well,
[9:39] Speaker 2: let me.
[9:40] Speaker 1: Fight back or defend yourself, or you know, get them
[9:42] Speaker 1: back when you have a chance.
[9:44] Speaker 2: Jesus says, no, give him your cloak too.
[9:49] Speaker 1: God makes his son to shine on the good and
[9:51] Speaker 1: the bad alike. He makes his rain to fall on
[9:56] Speaker 1: the just and unjust alike. And so that's how we
[10:01] Speaker 1: should behave. And then I think it's really summed up
[10:06] Speaker 1: in this still after two thousand years, still shocking command.
[10:13] Speaker 1: I say to you, love your enemies. You've heard it said,
[10:20] Speaker 1: love your neighbor, hate your enemy. Well, that's that was
[10:22] Speaker 1: the old you know, the old justice. But I say
[10:26] Speaker 1: to you, love your enemies. Now, who's an enemy? An
[10:31] Speaker 1: enemy is someone who by definition has harmed you. That's
[10:36] Speaker 1: why they're your enemy. They've hurt you in some way.
[10:40] Speaker 1: That's by a very ancient, deeply ingrained instinct. We say, no,
[10:46] Speaker 1: I'm gonna at least defend myself, if not strike back.
[10:55] Speaker 2: Love your enemy. Will the good of you? Enemy? Boy?
[11:02] Speaker 2: That's hard, everybody.
[11:04] Speaker 1: I look, I'm a sinner, I confess it. It's hard.
[11:09] Speaker 1: I think right now of enemies of mind, meaning people
[11:12] Speaker 1: that in some way have harmed me.
[11:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, I know.
[11:16] Speaker 1: It's deep in my animal nature.
[11:18] Speaker 2: Think of it.
[11:19] Speaker 1: And we all came we all came up from the
[11:21] Speaker 1: animal world, and that's deep in our instinctual makeup to
[11:26] Speaker 1: say no. No, you fight back and you resist. No,
[11:31] Speaker 1: he says, don't resist evil and love even those, especially
[11:38] Speaker 1: those who've harmed you.
[11:40] Speaker 2: Can you see, it's the ultimate test of love.
[11:44] Speaker 1: If love is to will the good of the other
[11:47] Speaker 1: as other, what's the test? The test is that I
[11:51] Speaker 1: would love someone who will not answer me in turn.
[11:56] Speaker 1: That's also, of course in this sermon of the Mountain,
[11:58] Speaker 1: isn't it. If I love those who love me, If
[12:00] Speaker 1: I give a party to those who will then give
[12:02] Speaker 1: me a party in return, well then I'm no better,
[12:05] Speaker 1: Jesus says, than the pagans, in other words, than those
[12:08] Speaker 1: who don't believe in the true God. If that's all
[12:12] Speaker 1: I'm doing, then then I'm no better than the pagans. No, No,
[12:17] Speaker 1: The mark of Jesus' disciple is the one who can
[12:21] Speaker 1: love even his or her enemy. Again, don't treat this
[12:29] Speaker 1: as ordinary ethics. If you do, it's kind of crazy.
[12:33] Speaker 1: And I don't know one other moral philosopher anywhere in
[12:38] Speaker 1: the history of philosophy who says anything like this. It's
[12:45] Speaker 1: being said to us, not by Plato or Aristotle or
[12:49] Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson or Karl Marx, is being sent to us
[12:53] Speaker 1: by the Son of God, who wants us not just
[12:57] Speaker 1: to be just in some ordinary mansense. He wants us
[13:02] Speaker 1: to be perfect, as the heavenly Father is perfect, the
[13:07] Speaker 1: one who makes his son to shine on the good
[13:11] Speaker 1: and the bad alike. And God bless you.

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