Bishop Robert Barron: "Until the Whole World Hears" | SLS18

well thank you all a good evening to the focus world I am delighted to be with you is my first time at one of these focus gatherings their legendary course across the country so to be here and just to see all of you is uplifting to my Catholic soul so thank you for your presence and for your ministry you know honestly I don't know any other group or institution in the Catholic Church today that's fulfilling its mission and living up to its charism more than focus I really mean that I think it's one of the great manifestations of the spirit in the life of the church today and I've known a lot of focus of people over the years and the fact I've taught a number at the seminary who've gone into the priesthood here's my favorite focus story as I started about I don't know maybe ten years ago I was in Phoenix at the University of Arizona and there was a little gaggle of focus and missionaries there who came to church one day and there they were all energetic and you know smart and full of the spirit and I said well what's your what's your project this year and I said we want to convert the most popular person on campus I said well who is it and they said the quarterback of the football team and so they were meeting every morning to pray and and pray for his conversion so I said how's it going and they said well we haven't converted him yet but we converted his girlfriend and his roommate and so I said well you got him surrounded you know I mean it's just a matter of time but I've always sensed that with the focus folks this tremendous enthusiasm tremendous focus pun intended so thank you everybody for having me thank you okay listen I got I got very good news for you I had prepared about a 45-minute presentation so just very casually backstage I said to him on the organizer as well so I'm gonna go for about 45 minutes and her face come with white and she goes you have 18 minutes so I now have 15 minutes so you're gonna get a little portion of my talk if that's okay you know one thing I'm not gonna talk about at all are the statistics about the nuns you know the N o n s all the people today who are leaving organized religion I've written a lot about that spoken about it so go online you can find all that you know the statistics are depressing the one that always stays in my mind is that among young Catholics under 30 now fully fifty percent identify as nuns as having no religion so we got our work cut out for us and you all know that and I'm not going to go into more sociology with you what I want to do in the brief time I have is talk about the Acts of the Apostles so whenever I think about evangelization or the mission of a church I think go back to this great biblical text that gives us the template that sets the agenda for us and that's the Acts of the Apostles I'll just say a couple things now in the time I have here's the first thing to notice about the Acts of the Apostles it tells us everybody very clearly who's in charge and what I mean here is the Ascended Christ who now commands his church so listen how this second volume of Luke's great masterpiece begins he reminds his friend Theophilus we're not sure who Theophilus was but he says of everything that Jesus initiated both as practice and teaching until the day he was taken up having issued instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles he had chosen that's the whole church now if we attend to those words what's our job everybody it's simply to continue doing what Jesus did and speaking when he spoke two thousand years ago the law Gauss takes to himself a human nature it's the Incarnation but now the risen and ascended Christ takes to himself a mystical body where his hands and his feet his eyes his tongue his speech and our job is to do exactly what he did and to speak what he spoke and this is why it's very important that the very first thing that Luke tells us about an act is the Ascension of Jesus now here's the trouble with the Ascension a lot of us think of the Ascension as Jesus going up up and away right now some of this room probably very few are old enough to remember this old pop song called up up and away but that's precisely how not to understand the ascension as though Jesus now has gone away goodbye Jesus no rather think of it this way the way in the in the pre-modern period the way a military commander would go to a height so was to survey and command the whole field of battle from that heightened position he could more effectively command the troops and so the risen Christ a sins and sits at the right hand of the Father right that's not just an abstraction sitting at the right hand of the Father he's in the position of command through the Holy Spirit the ascended risen Christ commands his mystical body the church to do what he did and to say what he said that's it everybody that's the task of the church to the present day every one of you in some way has been sent by that commander has been given orders to do the work of the church right after the Ascension comes Pentecost the Ascension something of Earth now going into the heavenly realm Pentecost something of heaven coming down to earth see there's the church under the command of the Ascended Christ the church now brings the power of heaven to earth in a myriad ways according to your particular missions you bring something of heaven to earth doing as Jesus did okay now here's the one thing I'm going to talk about with you as we try to make this more specific the church under the command of Christ engages in bold speech bold speech so on the day of Pentecost as the spirit rushes on the Apostles the symbol of the tongues as a fire settle over their heads and then they burst forth and they speak to the Jews who had come from all corners of the world in fact if you look at Luke's description imagine Jerusalem in the middle and then he describes people from various points and they form a kind of ellipse around Jerusalem the idea is the word going out now to all the nations of the world you know last September of Scott Hahn himself the great Bible scholar came to LA where I am based and he gave a morning of reflection and afterwards he came to my room at the cathedral and we spoke for about a half hour and I was very gratified to hear this from Scott Hahn himself that there's no historical ground for claimed that st. Francis said preach always and when necessary use words they were hear that phrase preach always and when necessary use words I've always had a kind of cordial dislike of that statement and so I was very happy to hear that st. Francis didn't actually say it now here here's why don't get me wrong I mean I get it I get it you know that our whole life should witness the Christ and our whole life should be a kind of preaching I understand but see here's the danger I think the danger is that statement can be used as a justification for a kind of anti-intellectualism it can be used as a justification for a kind of pastoral reductionism I mean look you know what it really all comes down to is taking care of the poor don't get me wrong I'm all in favor of taking care of the poor I'm totally in favor of it but let's be honest I mean a Jew a Hindu a Buddhist a Muslim heck even the atheist of goodwill can be devoted to the poor my point is that in itself can never be evangelical e sufficient no no the church engages from the beginning in bold fiery coherent confident and intelligent speech and listen you know this and if anyone's paid any attention to my work you know this this is not the time for anti intellectualism in our church this is not the time for anti intellectualism in our church we have lots of young people you know them they're your colleagues and friends who are leaving the church for intellectual reasons you know they're supposed to science or it doesn't make sense or it's old mythology no no we need people and you're them I nominate all of you we heat people to have tongues of fire settle over their heads so they can engage in this bold speech okay what's at the heart of the speech listen to this now from Luke therefore let the whole house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him Christ both Lord and anointed this Jesus whom you crucified there's some of the earliest preaching of the church some of the earliest charismatic proclamation let the whole house of Israel know with certainty God has made him both Lord and anointed this Jesus whom you crucified listen Oh at the heart of our bold speech is the proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord that's what he says here Lord and anointed mashiac kurios and Kristen's kurios what was the watchword of the time Kizer kurios Caesars the Lord he's the one to whom my final allegiances do the bold speech of the church is not Kaiser or any of his colleagues or predecessors or successors but rather Jesus is Lord Jesus is the king and he's also Christoph's anointed a Jewish audience would have gotten that right away wouldn't they it means he's the real and new David the king you know here's something everyone to pay attention to Rome was actually pretty liberal in his policies towards rival religions Rome kind of generously took in a lot of religions how come it opposed early Christianity so violently how come the first disciples were hounded to their deaths because they declared boldly coherently intelligently confidently the lordship of Jesus if he's Lord no one else's Lord if he's Lord everything in your life belongs to him your personal life yes your body yes your friendships yes your political life yes your entertainment yes all of it he's not just one figure among many not one more sage in a long line of sages and prophets but he's Lord and Christ you see now why Caesar tried to kill the first Christians here's something I've always loved this was said by a anglican bishop of the last century he said when paul preached there were riots when i preached they served me tea that's what happens to a weakened attenuated christianity a christianity trading only in bland spiritual teachings only saying what can be heard anywhere else in the popular culture that kind of speech everybody is not fiery speech not bold speech and in the Acts of the Apostles we hear that when those first disciples spoke people were cut to the heart still true it's still true to this day bland spiritual teachings saying what everybody else says that won't cut anyone to the heart but trust me declaring the lordship of Jesus that'll cut them to the heart here's a second thing in my three minutes I got left here's the second thing I want to say about bold speech all throughout the Acts of the Apostles they make reference to the Old Testament you will not understand the lordship of Jesus apart from the Old Testament listen now to Peter on Pentecost morning yes in those days he's quoting the Prophet Joel I will pour forth my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall dream dreams chapter three peter chides his fellow Israelites listen the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob the god of Our Fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over he goes on God fulfilled that which he announced beforehand through the mouth of his prophets that the Anointed One would suffer and then take out your Bibles when you get back to your rooms tonight and look up that magnificent speech the st. Stephen gives in Chapter 7 of Acts remember when he's brought before the Sanhedrin and it says his face was like that of an angel and he speaks of the whole history of Israel beginning with Abraham and the patriarchs coming up through Joseph and Moses the burning bush moving on to the Exodus the miracle at the Red Sea the worship of the golden calf the tent of meeting in the desert the conquest by Joshua the building of the Great Temple the coming of the prophets and then he sees Jesus as the culmination of that great history of Israel that's how you evangelize everybody when Jesus is cut off from his Israelite roots he does devolve very quickly into just one more philosopher or one more wise figure now read Deepak Chopra or anything by Oprah Winfrey any of that stuff you'll get that flattened out uninspiring Jesus but trust me when I tell you trust me when I tell you when you present Jesus as the fulfillment of the great story of Israel Jesus as the fulfillment of the temple that was meant to bring divinity and humanity together when you preach him as the fulfillment of the law and the Covenant and the Torah when you preach him as the culmination of all of the proclamation of the prophets people will be cut to the heart their hearts will catch fire within them you don't know way maybe those who have a background in drama it's like acting in act 5 of Hamlet and having no idea what went on an X 1 through 4 you know I mean if you're acting in act 5 you've got to know what happened in the earlier part of the story because he where are we in this story everybody we are in the last act of the great drama creation the fall the formation of a people Israel and then the coming of the Messiah the Christ the Messiah who now listen in his ascended state commands his church to continue his work when you declare Christ that way forget it people will get it and hearts will catch fire that's why you know in the in the ancient church there was a heresy called Marcion ISM named for this figure Marcion who who wanted to just get rid of the Old Testament just just preached the New Testament this old testament business of the you know the angry violent God get rid of all that well the church resisted it read people like st. Irenaeus in the second century the church resisted Marcion ISM Marcion ISM is alive and well today isn't it people the same thing impatient with the God of the Old Testament angry violent but when you try to tell the story of Jesus apart from the Old Testament you will not get him you know maybe I got a close here I've told this story before is have you heard I apologize but this is some years ago when I was at my word on fire office here in Chicago and this young lady that work for us came in with her daughter Josie who was now at the time and Josie like a lot of little kids was a big star Wars fan right so her mother said hey tell father Bob all about Star Wars so the nine-year-old girl begins to recount the great story of George Lucas and and and she had every little detail of the story I mean I got the main lines of it but I mean she was going way beyond what I knew from from 25 years ago every plot and subplot every minor character when she finished her little account I said to her mother don't tell me the kids can't understand the Bible this great rollicking complex rich story that we have full of weird names yeah but no weirder than then obi-wan Kenobi right when the kids have no trouble with that don't tell me they can't understand the Bible and therefore don't tell me they can't appreciate Jesus as the culmination of that great story so the Ascended Jesus that's why we pray everybody isn't it we communed with him now at this very place a few hours ago listen to his word or what do you want command me tell me speak Lord I'm listening plant your word down deep in me that's the whole Christian life of Prayer in some ways is to listen to the commands coming from the Ascended Christ one of those commands and boy this room we've set this whole city on fire would we if the people in this room could be filled with those those tongues of fire remind the world who its king is remind the world whom they are to worship cease everyone worships somebody or something everyone's got a king right our job is to stand up bow be and say no Christ is king everything in your life belongs to him and tell the great story tell the great story grounding it in the narrative of Israel then I think everybody your hearts will catch fire and you will allow the fire of the Holy Spirit to take over the society listen god bless you in your work I believe in you I believe in what focus does all those who have been drawn here because of focus missionaries take seriously that perhaps you're hearing the command of the Ascended Christ precisely through them god bless you your work everybody keep praying for me thanks everybody

Channel: FOCUS Catholic

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Keywords: SLS18, FOCUS, FOCUS Catholic, College Student, Catholic Conference, Catholic Faith, Catholic, Spiritual Multiplication, Catholic Talks, FOCUS Conference, Eucharist, Catholic College Students, Living the Faith, SEEK, SEEK by FOCUS, Bishop Robert Barron

Id: uLiJqKrVR8s

Length: 22min 54sec (1374 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 29 2018