Bishop Barron on Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, & Evangelization

[Music] just a couple weeks ago I gave a sermon in which I mentioned Keith Richards who is the famous lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones I mentioned a passage in his autobiography we talked about the early days of the Rolling Stones when they dedicated themselves to learning Chicago blues and he said we gave ourselves with a Benedict in dedication to learning this music I told the people I think you should give yourselves with that same kind of Benedictine dedication and singleness of purpose to the spiritual life okay I also added I said please don't buy his autobiography for your confirmation kids as a present and say father baron recommended that you read it I said Keith wandered down a lot of bad paths you know and the people laughs well after the mass I had dinner I had breakfast together with my sister and her family and my mother my mother said Bobby I thought your homily was fine but you should never have mentioned that awful Keith Richards who's just the epitome of nothing so she wasn't happy about that little citation now is anyone who knows me well realizes I'm a big fan of Bob Dylan I discovered Bob Dylan when I was a teenager and it's fair to say that his writing his music has had a decisive influence on the way my own imagination and mind had been formed even in regard to to God that's why in a lot of my books and a lot of my retreats and DVDs I like Bob Dylan quite a bit in fact in one of my recorded retreats I referred to Bob Dylan as a hero of mine well some people complained about that and they said well come on Bob Dylan was a drug addict and Bob Dylan's thinking is a little bit you know off kilter and how could a Catholic priest be recommending him so enthusiastically another person that I cite all the time is Thomas Merton I discovered Thomas Merton around the same time I first listened about Dylan when I was a teenager I read these wonderful autobiographies story mountain and as you know that's the gripping narrative of this young very worldly man who undergoes a conversion first to Catholicism and then to the very rigorous life of a Trappist monk well that story had a huge impact on me and influence rather profoundly my own decision to become a priest and so it's not surprising that I cite Merton a lot in my books and my writings in my video work etc well again people have complained to me about that they say well you know Thomas Merton in his private life even after his conversion you know did some ambiguous things and in his own theoretical life he seemed adrift in a more synchronistic direction toward the end of his life maybe even toward Buddhism and they say how can you be recommending Thomas Merton or using him with such enthusiasm well here's the thing I think my mother was a little strong in saying that Keith Richards the epitome of nothing but I certainly agree Keith Richards is not a model in every aspect of life certainly not in the moral area more to it though I deeply admire Bob Dylan I certainly agree he's not a model of Catholic orthodoxy and every one of his opinions Thomas Merton you know sure there's some things many people in the 60s got a little bit mixed up and there are certain things he said and did in the 60s that I wouldn't particularly recommend nevertheless I would strongly defend my use of these figures in my own work as a preacher and teacher and evangelizer how come well part of is this to cite one quotation or one dimension of a writer or figure is not to give a wholesale endorsement to everything that person ever said or ever did I mean look I'm a big fan of Abraham Lincoln I cite Lincoln all the time well Lincoln's theological opinions were hardly of Orthodox want his views on God are not ones that I would say are perfectly correct yet I cite him I'm a big fan of Picasso especially a lot of his early work I think is very moving some of the Casas work is deeply offensive look at someone like Martin Heidegger you know with Vidkun Stein the greatest philosopher of the 20th century well Heidegger has been very influential on my own theological work and yet I hate the fact in Heidegger at one point his life was a Nazi sympathiser my point is this if we're limited to those people with whom we utterly agree in every intellectual of area and with whom we are an utter agreement morally we'd be limited to citing Jesus and the Blessed Mother it's hid everyone carries with him or her some ambiguity we be so radically limited if we if we thought that any citation involved a wholesale endorsement of everything someone had said or done but there's more to it than men and has to do with the New Evangelization okay Keith Richards is not a saint but Keith Richards has a credibility in the counterculture that a lot of saints don't have and so my citation of Keith Richards might signal to somebody who would never otherwise darken the door of a church you might say no I'll listen to that that's intriguing Keith gives me an access to that world that the church rarely has access to same with Bob Dylan I mean Bob Dylan privily Orthodox ins opinions obviously not but Bob Dylan has this massive credibility in the wider culture a culture that is way outside the normal reach of the of the Catholic Church I've told the story before about how and word on fire I did a video about Bob Dylan and it reached a young guy 19 years old who hated the Catholic Church completely alienated from the church but it brought him in to that video than two other videos and then to the web site and he's now becoming a Catholic well that's how it worked if I was citing only Catholic saints I might never have gotten that young man's attention Thomas Merton sure he said and did things that I wouldn't be totally in agreement with but mertens got a credibility in this religious culture that's way outside the Catholic ambit maybe people who are deeply interested in in Buddhism and Hinduism and Eastern religions would be intrigued enough by a mention of Thomas Merton to listen you know my model in this regard actually is Thomas Aquinas my great hero Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century in his highly you know focused Orthodox Catholic work sites among many others Moses Maimonides who was a Jewish rabbi he cites Aristotle who is a pagan philosopher he cites Avera ways and Avicenna who were Muslim philosophers he cites Origen a Christian theologian many of whose opinions were condemned by the church in other words acquaintance ranges widely in the people he cites and he's not restricted to those who were utterly Orthodox in their ideas or their behavior he's willing to use people who can give him access to a much wider culture and willing to find truth wherever it lies even in the midst of maybe some erroneous opinions or some questionable behavior my fear is at a hyper fussiness about the moral and intellectual integrity of the people eyesight would lock me and then lock the church into a kind of feedback loop into this closed conversation where we only talk to people with whom we utterly agree and see that evangelical E is just not going to fly my overall point here is just as Jesus said go out to all the nations and announce the good news and just as john paul ii said we have to engage in a new evangelization we've got to go outside the ordinary ambit of the church i think the use of such figures who might be maybe not strictly perfect in every way is more than justified by the access they give us to this wider world as we try to evangelize [Music]

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 68,901

Rating: 4.8798585 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Robert Barron, Word On Fire, Catholicism, Christianity, Jesus, God, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain, Lincoln, Heidegger, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Moses Maimonides, Avicenna, Averroes, Origen, Pope John Paul

Id: qiz9LNizcyk

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2011