Bishop Barron: Sainthood, sanctity and what makes us holy

[Music] I'm going to really welcome onto the stage a man who's given us a great deal to think about in his talk on the mass on the Eucharist itself before I do a little bird has told me that it is the third anniversary of the day that Bishop or that Robert Barron became Bishop Robert Barron so [Applause] it's a bishop birthday anyway and here he is with the second of his keynote speeches ladies and thank you listen thanks everybody very much when I was a teacher some years ago the period that no one wanted to have was the period right after lunch right that's when you and I was lecturing in philosophy like Hegel and cons you know it was difficult to keep people and I hope my topic today which really is is sainthood it's sanctity what makes us holy hope that keeps you a little bit more awake so Christianity in the earliest days was described not as a religion not as a doctrinal program it was described as a way look back in the Acts of the Apostles those who follow this way of Jesus I've always loved been expression a path I think if you read the great spiritual teachers in our tradition you see Christianity articulated as the walking of three basic paths and by claiming any originality in this I'm just commenting on the great masters I think Christianity displays itself as walking on three paths first one find the center second one know that you're a sinner third one realize your life is not about you so find the center know you're a sinner realize your life is not about you I think all of us walk those paths and it's not as though we just do them you know one two three they overlap in the course of our lives and sometimes we find ourselves much more on one than the other two but I think all three are present and all three articulates something really basic about being a Christian so I want to just mention something in this talk about the three ways or paths okay so let's begin with the first one to find the center I was a doctoral student in lovely Paris France for three years and I remember very vividly the day I arrived in Paris it was June the 12th 1989 and I'd never been to France before I had my high school and college French and you know some background but I'd never really lived in a french-speaking country this is before Internet and cell phones I had the address of my house on a piece of paper in my wallet that's so I got there I dropped off my bags and I was I was jet-lagged and I was tired and I was sort of frightened but I made my way down to Notre Dame Cathedral so i roughly knew where that was and went up the main aisle and I came to the transept of Notre Dame and I turned left and I looked up at the North Rose window which I think is the most magnificent Rose window in the whole Christian world this you know magnificent we love of light and color and I stood there no kidding for about a half hour and then every single day between that day June 12th and when I went home for Christmas like December 20th or something every single day I went down to that spot and looked up at that Rose window and ever since then the Rose windows have played a very important role in my own spirituality in my teaching and in my writing and as I edit a tip on them I think the Rose windows are wonderful Eve occasions of this first path why do we find them so a compelling a beautiful of course yes but see those who made them we're trying to teach us a spiritual lesson if you look at all the Rose windows right these great wheels without exception in the center of the window is it a picture of Christ so in that North Rose at Notre Dame right Our Lady so that you see Mary but if you look very closely on her lap is the Christ child so at the very center of the window is Jesus then circling around that Center in these ordered harmonic patterns are all the other elements of the window and they're connected by various devices like by spokes to the center they're evocative of this first path when Christ is the center of our lives unambiguously right without competition he's the center then the wager is that the rest of our lives tend to fall into harmony around that Center so think of the the French call the midday all the medallions the little images in the Rose window think of those as evocative of all the elements that make up you there's your mind and there's your will and there's your passions and there's your family life and your private life and your your sexual life etc etc all that makes you up if Christ is the center then everything else your life will be connected harmonically to that Center you know that rose that I'm talking about the north rose window was going up at the same time that Thomas Aquinas was in Paris Thomas Aquinas said the beautiful occurs at the intersection of three things integrity us come so Nancy ax and Claritas Thomason integra chaste means wholeness right that it's all about one thing that the whole of an object or a face or an event holds together secondly consonant SIA means this harmony that everything everything contributes to the overall design everything is in sync with everything else Clary toss means radiance glow or shine when those three things come together Aquinas says we say ah beautiful and that's exactly what happens when we looking at the Rose window we see those three elements and we say how beautiful see here's the point when Christ is the center of your life your soul becomes beautiful it has integrity ops you know the great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said a saint to someone whose life is about one thing it's a very cool little definition I think because it doesn't mean that a saint is living a monotonous life I mean look at the Saints across the centuries and anything but monotonous but the same is gathered everything in the same centers on the on the call of Christ consonance eeeh that everything that makes you up holds together as one in that image CS Lewis used it of the ships sailing in convoy under the direction of a commander and the ships are kind of side by side they're sailing together well good doing their mission on on point if even one little ship gets out of luck they say oh no big deal just one ship is off kilter well before you know it it'll bump into the next ship which will bump into the next one and the convoys harmony is lost right so Lewis said our lives are meant to be harmonic marked by consonants eeeh everything contributing to the overall purpose we can tend to say and I'll get this when I talk about sin we can tend to say very easily oh you know I'm doing great 95% of my life together there is one little error I know that's really crazy but I'm not gonna worry about that well good luck with that plan right I mean I found that over and over again in my own pastoral work it's that one area of life it's off kilter that can lead to the disharmony within the self and then you'll finally Clary toss shine or radiance or globe you know it's not accidental at all that we tend to depict the Saints as illumined figures we put halos around them I mean I think it's I was gonna say don't take it literally although in some cases I think people with great spiritual vision have noticed just that kind of luminosity around the Saints remember the accounts of Mother Teresa or Padre Pio but see generally I'd say the halo is a symbol of the Claritas of the saint it's the radiance of a harmonious and integrated life find the center and your life will fall into harmony around it Oh father my life I'm just a mess I think if people have seen me over the years or in confession father I don't know my life is just a mess it's just a jumble well remember the talk from this morning what do you worship right what's the highest value to you what's at the center of your life if it's not Christ your life will fall into this disharmony it will disintegrate now turn it around the other way this is many years ago I was counseling a young guy came to see me and he was he was kind of lost had never really pursued a religious sensibility he said I'm kind of lost and father could just sort of teach me a few things about prayer he asked me so I didn't really know him at all and I just taught him a few basic things about centering prayer and the Our Father and maybe something about the rosary as a way of gathering one's heart around the Lord and then off he went thanks you know thanks for that so he came back several months later he said can I see you again and he said he sat down and he said you know I've got to stop having promiscuous sex and I said yeah yeah I think you're right about that again I knew nothing about him you never told me thing was like but what was interesting was he said I did what you told me I just started every day doing this these prayer routines and see what was happening was it was knitting him back together it was showing him what was off-kilter in his life that maybe his life wasn't too terrible but this part of his life was really off kilter and it was interrupting the harmony so can I suggest to everybody here as a spiritual exercise keep that Rose window in your mind and say okay is everything in my life attached to Christ does my mind belong to him it's my will belong to him does my body belong to him does my sexual life belong to him do my friendships belong to him how about the entertainment that I pursue is that belong to him you know one way to look at it friends as we speak about Jesus is Lord and see we can spiritual eyes that too easily oh it's nice spiritual term Jesus the Lord but he go back to the Latin word there Domino's lasers dominoes Jesus is the Lord he's the master of my life really is he totally does he dominate every part of my life you don't don't we that as oppression sign oppression that's liberation or shift the metaphor is every part of my life related to him that's what it means to find the center you know the great story of Martha and Mary I found my years of preaching that it's one of the most aggravating Gospels to people I think I've got more commentary over the years on Martha Mary mostly from from angry women right that will come up and say some version of you know it's not really fair I mean to Martha here she is doing all the work and and I I'm with her she's got a legitimate complaint here's it Mary goofing around and I'm doing all the work but why does Jesus afraid Martha so I've heard that a lot here's I think the key to that story III don't think despite a lot of centuries of commentary I don't think it's primarily about the difference between the contemplatively and the active life you know that Mary's the contemplative at the feet of the Lord and Martha's fussing around with those activity and Jesus prefers contemplatives to active it's a way it's been read but I don't think that's the heart of it I think the key is in this language when Jesus says Martha Martha you are anxious and upset about many things right many things mary has chosen and then the Latin here I think is lovely in the Vulgate of version of the Bible it says Mary is chosen the unum necesario right the one thing necessary and she will not be deprived can I suggest it's not so much about action versus contemplation it's about the spiritual problem of the one and the many see most of us sinners whose lives are kind of disintegrated or all over the place we're scattered we're anxious and upset therefore about many things mary mary has chosen the unum necesaria the one necessary thing namely ordering her life to Christ see then everybody then everything else that she would do including all of her activities would find their center would find their ground think about your own life in terms of the one and the many here's a here's an interesting little clue as well and that interesting that in the Gospels those possessed by by the devil speak in the plural remember the Capernaum demoniac and Mark's Gospel he's one person right what do you want of us Jesus of Nazareth have you come to destroy us we're single person but speaking in the plural or how about the the Gerasenes ammonia what's your name Jesus as Legion for there are hundreds of us now we can read that a number of different ways but I think a very provocative way to read it is remember that the diabolic literally dibalan and Greek means to scatter to cast apart to divide there are hundreds of us what do you want of us Jesus of Nazareth that's the divided severed splintered self what Jesus about bringing us back to this harmonizing unity where we find the center and then see let your life be as complex as you want go everywhere do everything complex life but all of it gathered harmonically like the elements of the Rose window just one more image from this first path how could I not use it now in Liverpool because it's from John Lennon but I'm gonna bracken him just for a second to get to John Lennon I want to talk about another great wheel from the medieval cathedral so the Rose window is one but a second one you find in a lot of the Gothic churches is the so called rota Fortuna right the wheel of fortune and the Wheel of Fortune if you can imagine it you know up here it was great wheel and at the top of the wheel of fortune there's a king and he says Regan oh I'm reigning and then as the wheel turns over here you have a king having lost his crown he says right Navi I have reigned then the wheel keeps turning at the very bottom is a little pauper he says soon seen a reg no I've got no power then up here on that side of the wheel you've got this kind of ladder climber coming up he says reg knob Oh I shall reign okay so the point is that's life am i right everybody that's life it's the Wheel of Fortune sometimes you're up think of the Reg know it could be power it could be money it could be fame that could be health it could be whatever sometimes we're like kings and you know to be honest there's not a lot we can do about it a lot of us this dumb luck then other times in life it's like no I'm losing it I'm losing what I have wealth power pleasure or whatever and then don't we all know it every single person in this room sometimes were at the bottom of the wheel of fortune it's just it just turned on me and I'm out of power money fame well whatever and then other times in life I'm coming back up I'm making a comeback all right that's life what did you think of Frank Sinatra right that riding high in April shot down in May right that's life and we all know it the wheel of fortune turn now in the center of the wheel of fortune so think right smack in the middle of the wheel is a depiction of Christ the same yesterday today and forever now here's the beautiful spiritual point don't live your life on the rim of the wheel where most of us live most of the time is on the rim of an turned wheel fussing about getting to the top in wealth power pleasure or whatever and a lot of it's out of our control are we really happy when we're at the top of the wheel of fortune no because we know any second it could turn and I'll become mr. reg Navi or on the other side of me trust me there's somebody climbing up the wheel to knock me off the top right the point is every point on the rim of the wheel is a point of anxiety sound familiar now fellow sinners in this room right that's where most of us are most time we're fussing around on the rim of the wheel and it's making us crazy and an unhappy rather move yourself to the center of the wheel in Christ the same yesterday today and forever Christ who links us to the infinity and eternity of God Christ who loves us no matter what and grounded in that central place we can do what Watts the wheel as it turns alright hey I'm up yeah you know it's not gonna last hey I'm at the bottom yeah I know and it probably won't last hey I'm making my comeback yeah good for you and you might get in the top again but it's not gonna last right but when you're living in the center you live in that point that the great spiritual masters call indifference don't read I know in English that's got a negative quality in diferencia in st. Ignatius Spanish but I'm indifferent Lord whether I'm rich or poor whether I'm famous or notorious whether I'm loved or hate it doesn't matter to me because I'm grounded in this central place the Greek spiritual masters talk about apatheia and you know apathy is a bad word in English but what they meant was I'm divorced from my feelings about the rim of the wheel I'm in Christ and so I'm apathetic whether I'm up or down left or right spinning around okay here's why I mentioned John Lennon now as you well know John Lennon had a kind of ambiguous relationship to religion you know going back to the Beatles were bigger than Jesus and all that mid-60s and then you know a song like imagine which is a lovely melody but I mean terrible lyrics from a religious perspective imagine there's no heaven and there's no God so I mean John had an up-and-down relationship with religion but he was really interesting to me in a number of biographies of John Lennon they say that in the 70s just the years before he died he was getting very interested again in religion and was actually watching religious preachers and all that on TV now I don't know what was going on in his mind and heart but you remember the last elavil double fantasy did his poor he died and you remember the song watching the wheels and gentleman it says in that song I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll I'm no longer riding on the merry-go-round well when I heard that yeah I don't know again I can't tell you for sure what's going on in his at heart but you could read that very much along these lines I'm just sitting here watching the wheel go round and round I love to watch it roll because I'm no longer riding on it now think of that Wheel of Fortune again talk about someone at the top of the Wheel of Fortune when John Lennon little kid from Liverpool was what twenty four years old was there anyone more famous in the world I mean he wasn't the richest guy in that world but yet he had access to huge amounts of money power extraordinary cultural power I mean he was just traveling the whole world came to see him well pleasure power honor I think in a way the Beatles were honored all over the world what was it like for John Lennon to be in the top of the wheel of fortune let me give you a little hint help I need somebody help not just anybody help won't you please please help me John Lennon right he wrote that song about 1965 when he was the top of the wheel of fortune and they say when he went into the studio to record it it was a bit of a dylan-esque sort of lament that's how we wrote it and that would fit the lyrics but of course that he's a Beatle so they turned him to help I need somebody help this happy song but the lyrics that's someone at the top of the wheel of fortune no think of John Lennon Beatles breakup you know and it loses a lot of his cultural cachet and influence then mid-1970s talk about the bottom of the wheel of fortune remember John Lennon in The Lost Weekend he was drinking too much and he left his wife and his his life kind of bottomed out and then at the very end of his life he was kind of making a comeback you know the album was successful and he was back in their game I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll I'm no longer riding on the merry-go-round see did he come to see something I wonder about riding on the merry-go-round of the Wheel of Fortune and we'd be able to name as Christians what it is all about is finding that Center where Christ dwells okay I'm gonna go on to that's enough on Path number one you know actually I said a little bit this morning about a path to really talking about about sin as bad praise so remember all that from this morning and I'll fill that into my talk right now that's I think a great image for sin and also the thing about the bright lights you see the Christian spiritual life everybody never begins with sin that's a sign that we've we've taken a bad step and all kinds of bad isms dualism and Gnosticism and and platonism can come from a beginning the project with sin Puritanism don't begin us in behemoth grapes you begin with grapes find the center right Christ is broken into your life and now wants you to gather your life around him but see in the light of grace I do indeed realize that I am a sinner here's something from Chesterton appropriate to quote here in England GK Chesterton said we're all in the same boat and were all seasick and then he also said oh there are Saints in my religion but that just means a man who really knows he's a sinner it's good innit who was a saint someone that really knows he's a sinner how often in the lives of the Saints it's the breakthrough of grace that enables them to see what's off-kilter in them you know John Newton's great amazing grace we all know the story of the breakthrough of grace into this man's life that led him from being a slave-trader of the worst sort to being a man of God Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me well he knew he was a wretch not before grace but after grace that's the point it's the light that reveals to us what's off-kilter in us that's why I always say you know if the Advent season approaches now in a couple of months and we all sing the familiar hymn but man we got to move into the language of that hymn and not just let it float through our minds o come o come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear a tremendously powerful if you let it sink in I'm okay and you're okay well then Christianity is a waste of time and we don't need the grapes no no the better thing is is I'm like it I'm like a captive held for ransom meaning I'm helpless and so all I can do is say oh come come Emmanuel God with us ransom captive Israel that's someone who knows he's a sinner who stands therefore in need of graves let me just give you a couple of images now to fill out this picture of what it means to walk the second pan the woman at the well story that everyone loves from the Gospel of John the turning point of that story I think is when the Lord says you come to this well every day and you drink and you get thirsty again I want to give you water welling up in you to eternal life see at that moment were met all of us who read that story our hero are meant to identify with that woman carrying this heavy jar every day filling it with water drinking getting thirsty again and having to come back Thomas Aquinas said there are four great substitutes for God right he knew with Saint Agustin that the heart is wired for God by the way that's what we need to teach this culture everybody in this room we need to be missionaries of that to our secular culture the heart is restless till it rests of God is the fundamental Christian truth but Aquinas said we tend to find four great substitutes wealth pleasure power and honor now should be familiar to everyone in this room we're all sinners here we're all in the same boat we're all seasick which means we've all been pursuing these four things succumbing to the illusion that all if I just fill myself up with enough of these four things I'll be happy if I just get enough wealth I'll be happy that's the problem I'm not wealthy enough oh you know the other people they got a lot more pleasure their life than I do but I just had enough pleasure I'd be happy Oh power I'm just not powerful enough it like just got enough power I'd be happy or honor nobody appreciates me what credit do I get I deserve much more than I than I have if only I were honored sufficiently I'd be happy as you why am I saying all that in an angry voice because that's what it feels like to be in the grip of that desire doesn't it it feels frustrating and I'll tell you exactly why we're wired for God which means the infinite good only in God when my soul be at rest the vitals and so when I try to fill up that infinite emptiness with some little finite thing in the world what's that like here's what John of the Cross said imagine this infinite cavern alright that's our hunger for God now take wealth and I'm gonna I'm gonna fill it up with wealth was it like oh I'm still unhappy I must need more of well okay I'll be Bill Gates I'll be who's know the Jeff Bezos now is the richest man in the world I'll be Jeff Bezos I'll I'll put a billion I'll put four hundred billion dollars am i right see because it's an infinite cavern nothing in the world can fill it now same with pleasure you know you get a little pleasure in your life and you got a buzz from that and so it's great but then it wears off and here's two we're not meant for that oh I need more pleasure I mean I need more but all the pleasure in the world it doesn't see it and what happens is I get crazy frustrated and finally addicted again am i right fellow sinners see we all know this story we've all been down this road or stay with the metaphor we've all gone to that well we've drunk and we've gotten thirsty again right same with power same with honor you never get enough for them because they're not designed to make you happy power makes you powerful I'll give you that honor makes you honored I guess I'll give you that it doesn't make it happen well makes you wealthy sure doesn't make you happy the woman at the well I know the pattern you got here I know how frustrating it is I want to give you the water that Wells up in you to eternal life see what's that that's now filling your soul with God now here's a little trick everybody its spiritual physics and like a lot of laws of physics it's it's counterintuitive here's how it works though okay filling the soul with God alone is gonna make us happy true but whose God God is love right therefore it's only by filling the soul with love that we are filled up it's only by filling the soul with self-emptying love that were filled up do you see why it's so hard to get this right and why we all succumb to the wealth pleasure power honor project all the time now can I shift to am an Old Testament metaphor here the only great story from the first book of kings about elijah the priests of vow remember Elijah's the one prophet of Yahweh left but there are 450 priests appalled okay so it always goes right the priests and prophets of the false gods they're always thick on the ground that's never changed so Elijah challenges them alright you guys build that altars to your gods I'll build one too to God and we'll see what happens so they build the altars to the halls and then in that beautiful funny story as they they pray and they cajole and they dance and they hop around the altars nothing happens at noon it says Elijah mocked them where are they their gods maybe they're on vacation maybe they're taking a nap and my friends you know Hebrew a lot better than I do say that the Hebrew even insinuates maybe they're there in the John I mean maybe that I don't know where they are but they're not responding to you and then beautifully the story adds in their frenzy the priests of Baal slashed themselves right until that they the blood flows then Elijah prays to God and the fire falls consumes the sacrifice Elijah wins but I want you to see though is it this is much more than just a kind of macho hey my gods better than yours story it's making the point I've been making more laborious Li the pre-civil and their altars think of them as all the ways we engage in false worship think of those imagine for them wealth pleasure power honor how much time not be honest with yourself how much time if you spend in your life hoppin around one of those stupid altars am i right I mean I'm guilty is that anybody in this room hopping around those stupid altars and praying and cajoling and dancing and nothing happens because we're not meant for those things were meant for God and then then at the limit in my frustration of heart I start wounding myself anyone in this room that's ever wrestled with an addiction knows exactly what I'm talking about whether you're addicted to to booze or to drugs or to sex or to wealth pleasure power or honor it's the same dynamic is we now get in a frenzy a self-destructive frenzy trying to worship those stupid empty gods listen who can never answer with fire who's the one who can answer with fire is the Lord God see and there's the story of paths to is to realize that you're a sinner you know you're a sinner you you know you've hopped around those stupid altars you know you're like the woman at the well that's come again and again and still gotten thirsty except the amazing grace that wants to come into your life and wants to give you a new center a new focus of worship okay I'll braid your clothes pretty quickly with Path number three so find the center in light of vet experience you know you're a sinner name name your attachments everybody you know John of the Cross they had this wonderful definition of an attachment our greatest spiritual teacher he said an attachment is anything in this world including your own life that you're convinced you can't live without that good anything in this world including your own life that you think you can't live without that's an attachment remember what Ignatius of Loyola who was very interested in this theme of attachment detachment they said what would you do if they suppress your Jesuit Order that you've given your whole life to that's the that's the center of your life it's the apple of your eye what would you do and he said I need 15 minutes before the Blessed Sacrament and I'd be fine good anything in this world even your your most treasured cherished project that you think you can't live without that's an attachment identify it that's what it means to know you're a sinner okay last one I'll do this in short erm encompass I promise realizing your life is not about you I love that little phrase I got it from Richard Rohr than originally but I think you see in all the great spiritual teachers realize your life is not about you it's your life it's just not about you it's about something that stretches infinitely beyond you you know in the initiation rituals of primal peoples we find this commonality in almost any culture I'll talk about the rituals around it's clearer there the young man is ripped out of his his domestic life he said the men of the village will take him away from the comfort of his home think of a baby or a child I mean appropriately their life is about them we have to protect them and sustain them so there's a lot of self focus but in adolescence that boy is ripped out of that comfortable space he's then usually marked or scarified in some way like a tooth is knocked out or he's cut on the cheek who's circumcised or something that they marked on his body the difficulty in pain of life and then he's initiated into these stories and rituals and traditions of his people and then he sent depending on the culture to the edge of the tundra or the jungle or the forest given a few provisions and then told to make his way and to return only when he has some communication with the higher spiritual power again we could find this in in the cultures around the world what I'm finding so fascinating there is the young man is being told now in a in a ton of different ways your life is not about you your life is situated in the context of your family of your tribe of the history of your people of a nature that surrounds you and finally of a spiritual order that is meant to command you and see only when you get that in your bones are you capable really of returning usefully to the community it's an adventure of true self-discovery not this egotistic think we're hung up with today if I invent my own life I mean that's the opposite momentum you see I mean that's the opposite of the direction we should be going your life isn't about you and your little plants it's about finally God's plans for you I love something in the in the Western tradition the distinction between I'll put it Latin it sounds cooler the Pew cielo anima and the Magna anima you know our whereas it was a weird English word but pusillanimous that first is pusillanimous it means literally small sold small sold magna anima someone this magnanimous right is someone who's great sold to me that's a very helpful illustration the small soul San Agustin said sin is to be in curve on toes in say to be caved in around oneself that good that's the small soul my little plans my little preoccupations my little fears the Magna anima is the anima the soul connected to truth and to beauty into goodness and finally to God the great soul you know it's interesting both them I'm Latin has a Sanskrit root of them so it's no accident that machina anima sounds like Mahatma you know so we my Mohandas Gandhi was called Mahatma Gandhi the great-souled Gandhi meant the same thing the third path is moving out of the little musty stuffy confines of the la anima and discovering the great space of the magna honey you know I think I am I talked this morning I quoted that line from Ephesians there's a power already at work in you that can do infinitely more than you can ask or imagine see that's what I'm talking about what I can ask or imagine I mean for me to death with what I can ask and imagine right there's a power though thank God already at work in me that's the Holy Spirit that can do infant me more than I can imagine surrender to that power and you realize your life is not about you I think when I was about 15 or 16 I saw man for all seasons for the first time I saw the movie and before I read the play the great Paul Scofield right who died not too many years ago the great Shakespearean actor playing Thomas More and so many seams you know the guy old me but one that's it's a little quieter but it's really stayed in my heart remember um the man that eventually does more in it's called Richard rich who was a real historical figure but what a name you know if you're reflecting on a spiritual theme Richard rich and that's what Richard rich wanted was to be rich and to be famous he's a recent graduate and he's hanging around Thomas More because he wants to be among the glitterati of the court of Henry the eighth and he's after more to give him a big job right Richard rich he wants to fill up his Eagle with all the wealth pleasure of power down or he can so he pesters more pesters more and finally one day Thomas More says Richard I have a job for you you too and Porter says yes there's an opening in the local school and Richard Richard just tell him there's a big dreamer you know talk about the wheel of fortune and he's his face just fell I mean a teacher at a local school are you kidding and Moore says you'd be a good teacher maybe even a great one and Richard rich says and if I were who would know it and there's the voice of the of the frightened Pugh Cielo anima right and Moore's great answer in man for all seasons is yourself your friends your pupils God not a bad public that see but that's the whole and the same way in many ways I think the play turns on that little scene because if he Thomas More did have wealth pleasure power and honor as the movie open season is great manor house and Chelsey's that he becomes Lord Chancellor of England he's he's well fees famous well-known writer etc it's got it all by the end of the movie that's all stripped away every bit of it but what he's doing is playing for the one public that matters he's playing for God right that's the role he's playing I die the King's good sermon but God's first and see Whichard rich goes just the opposite way he's got nothing in the beginning by the end of the story remember it says he and he became Lord Chancellor England he had all that stuff but by God he played for the wrong audience it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world but for Wales remember the famous line and that's there no offense to Welshman out there but that's the point that's the point that the Lord Himself is making you know I mean we spent our whole life running after wealth pleasure honor and power it's a waste of time you're the line from Joseph Campbell the comparative mythologist he said here's the tragedy most people find that they've climbed the ladder of success only to discover it's up against the wrong wall but not true I mean you reach a certain age and I spent my whole life climbing of that stupid ladder and it's I was meant to climb that ladder you know that's why and Jesus great parables you know the pearl of great price and the treasure buried the field sell everything you've got and buy that when you find it when you find what God wants when you find that your life's not about you then surrender all the preoccupations you have who needs them in image I love from Hans or von Balthasar the great 20th century Catholic theologian much loved by john paul ii and pope benedict he distinguished between the ego drama and the Pheo drama ready what's the ego drama well that's the drama of it I'm writing producing directing and above all starring in its the Robert Barron show on the road and Liverpool here's my supporting cast around me see what most of us sinners live our lives that way it's the ego drama how am i I go doing how is my ego being projected how is my ego being protected how is my ego being praised but Bal sources forget the ego drama again bore me to death with the ego drama what matters is the feel drama that's the drama that God is writing God is producing God is directing and yeah you got a Ronan sure do and finding it isn't everything but it might not be anywhere in the ballpark of what you think your role is in the ego drama who cares who cares find what God wants you to do and then do that with all your heart and trust me you'll find much deeper joy in that move just one last observation I'll stop there's virtual writer named jean-pierre to Kasab and jean-pierre dick Assad is not one of the kind of great figures like John of the Cross or meister eckhart but he's a guy who had one a really good idea and he said it over and over and over again he's one of the most people but but it's a really good idea and here's it here it is he said everything that happens to you is in some sense the will of God and what he meant was is right out of Thomas Aquinas what he meant was either directly or indirectly either God is directly desiring it for you or God is at least permitting it right everything happens is either directly or indirectly the will of God our being here right now the will of God yeah you bet Aquinas says God's providence extends to particulars his typically laconic way of saying God's involved in everything some in this room or I can't see you but are old enough to remember the old Baltimore Kanak know this I taught my American audience you would know the Baltimore Catechism but if there are some Americans here there was a question in the old Catechism it was a Q&A for men right and the question was where is God and the answer was everywhere now can I suggest in light of jean-pierre dick Oh sod your whole life will change if you come to accept that where's God everywhere everywhere here yes has God brought us together yeah whatever happens to you is in some sense either directly or permissively the will of God I would suggest everybody your whole life will change if you begin to move into that space stop directing your life ego dramatically and start thinking about it feel dramatically my life is not about me it's about cooperating with what God has placed in front of me what God's purpose is for me so you find the center get your life gather around Christ know you're a sinner name your attachments name those false forms of worship and then realize your life is not about you it's about your participation in this great divine adventure what can those three paths means you become a saint which is the whole purpose of the church listen god bless you everybody thanks again for having me [Music] you

Channel: Catholic Church England and Wales

Views: 329,975

Keywords: Adoremus, Word on Fire, Bishop Robert Barron, Keynote, Speech, Christ, Saint, Worship, Catholic

Id: _EU-lAFC2eo

Length: 54min 8sec (3248 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2018