Mercy at the Cathedral - Lenten Reflection with Bishop Barron 2016

good evening everyone welcome to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels how many of you here for the first time raise your hands few of you we've been open 14 years where you been no it's great to have you thanks for coming well my name is Monsignor Kevin Castel NIC I'm the pastor and this is a great night we had a wonderful group here last night which will reach tonight almost five to six hundred people to hear Bishop Baron talk on Cathedral the mercy at the Cathedral mercy at the Cathedral and it's a great opportunity for us as Jubilee year this fifth week of Lent to enter into mercy and I want you to be really surprised tonight because I invited a lot of priests and we're gonna have end up with almost 18 or 19 priests and you know why they're here to hear your confessions yeah don't you want to applaud that these priests have come from all over some from Ventura they're gonna be here to your confession so after Bishop Barron's inspiring talk for us we're gonna have the opportunity for a very brief penance service and then they give you the opportunity during this fifth week of Lent before Holy Week to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance and I'll give you a little bit of direction after that so to introduce our wonderful guest speaker tonight please welcome Claudia Avila Turia's Claudia is our director of evangelization and she also serves as director of adult Faith Formation here at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels welcome thank you for senior Kevin good evening my name is Claudia Beulah as a Monsignor Kevin introduced me and I'm the director of evangelization and Faith Formation at York Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels it is my honor to introduce to you our guest speaker this evening Bishop Robert Barron was ordained in 1986 in the Archdiocese of Chicago he received a master's degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of America in 1982 and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Institute catholique de Pury in 1992 after serving as the rector and president of Mundelein seminary University of Saint Mary of the lake from 2012 to 2015 Pope Francis appointed him to be auxilary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and was ordained bishop this past September in this very Cathedral Bishop Baron has since been appointed to serve as our Santa Barbara pastoral in the Santa Barbara pastoral region Bishop Baron is a number-one Amazon best-selling author and has published numerous books essays and articles on theology and on the spiritual life and has also appeared in several media outlets he is founder of word on fire Catholic industries and is the host of Catholicism a groundbreaking award-winning documentary about the Catholic faith this evening we open ourselves to the Word of God as Bishop Baron guides us and reflecting on mercy at the cathedral please join me in welcoming Bishop Robert Barron thank you all very much thanks for that nice introduction and thank you for coming tonight everybody and what a wonderful opportunity it is to receive the mercy of God you know for Pope Francis himself personally the confession was the place where his life turned around tell that story he was about 17 and he went into a confessional in his hometown of Buenos Aires and we don't know exactly what happened but he said it was such a feeling of the mercy of God that it set him on the path toward the priesthood sent him on the path he's never left and so he said for this year of mercy the very best way to celebrate it is to go to confession and remember he famously said the confessional should not be a torture chamber but a place where you encounter the mercy of God so these good men here my brother priests are gonna make sure we're not in a torture chamber but a place where God's mercy is on offer and what a great theme to talk about what a privilege grateful to my senior Kevin for inviting me because what would you rather talk about than God's mercy Thomas Merton who was one of my great spiritual heroes was asked who is God he said mercy within mercy within mercy I mean John Paul picked up on his theme didn't he by recovering Saint Faustina and the image of the Divine Mercy Pope Francis has made it the key light motif of his whole papacy they probably intuited that the world especially in need of God's mercy now but all of us are you know I'm always moved when I'm in this space and I see the Saints here here's something to keep in mind throughout this talk every saint had a past every sinner has a future that's key to Catholic spirituality every one of these people you see the great heroes of the faith and they are indeed then but every saint had a past there's some conversion in the in the lives of every one of these people we see and every sinner all of us have a future and that's why we're here that's why we're here to soak in the mercy of God it was mentioned that I was I was ordained a bishop here and I have a very warm feeling for this place because of that wonderful day my family member said over here on this side of the Cathedral and the most the most memorable moment for me was when Archbishop Gomez put the oil on my head it was part of the ceremony I'd never had that before a lot of it I and then he kind of rubbed it in like like shampoo and then it began to run down my face you know during the liturgy and by the time we got for Eucharistic prayer I had to read part of it but I was weeping because the oil was and one of the priests the priests were over here and he said to me very sincerely you know it's so beautiful to see you were so moved by the ceremony I wasn't that moved by it it was the oil but you know it's wonderful is is once the oil goes on they put this little this little beanie on your head and it's ruined forever but but I haven't back in my room here because it's it's soaked with that oil from the day and it smells still a vet day we know I mean God's mercies like that though isn't it the beautiful reference in the psalm to the you know the oil running down upon your beard upon the collar of your robe well the Divine Mercy is like that you know poured out upon us poured out without reservation not because it's earned it can't be earned God doesn't love us because we're worthy we're worthy because He loves us there's the central theme of the spiritual life and so all of us coming here tonight you know his Chesterton said we're all in the same boat and we're all seasick right that's all of us sinners we don't deserve it but we soak it in and thereby become transformed okay what I want to do is look at this wonderful Lenten story from the fourth chapter of John's Gospel the story of the Samaritan woman at the well which i think is one of the great icons of the Divine Mercy in the New Testament the thing you know about the Gospel of John is everything matters in stories John was of course a great spiritual master but he was also a literary master of the highest order and all these stories are crafted as beautifully as these images here are crafted where every detail matters and so let's look at this great story and see how it brings us to an encounter with the Divine Mercy here's the first thing we hear it again times and places matter in John they're always of symbolic import so as the story opens Jesus is down in Judea which is the area in the south around Jerusalem and he has to journey up to his home country Galilee in the north right well what lies between Judea and Galilee but Samaria and Samaria is unclean country for Jews of Jesus time it's where half-breeds lived Jews who weren't really Jews it was so bad in fact and it plays a role in the story that they said anything that a Samaritan handled a Jew couldn't handle so you know what pious Jews did in Jesus time if they had to go from Judea to Galilee is they would go around Samaria they take this long route just to avoid any contact with Samaria so the first thing to notice as Jesus goes from Judea to Galilee he goes right into Samaria Jesus likes sinners as a friend of mine John Green who is a deacon in Chicago and John's an extraordinary guy he was born a raised to Catholic but then became an Evangelical Protestant and took in much of that's wonderful in the evangelical movement the Bible and and you know enthusiasm for mission all then but then he found his way back to the Catholic Church and John founded a ministry called Emmaus ministries Emmaus Ministries is an outreach to prostitutes both male and female who work some of the meanest streets in Chicago and John and his team set out about 10 p.m. most nights in a van and they go to visit these people and to bring them food and drink and to counsel them etc etc tough gritty work one day I said to him John how do you do this night after night go out on the meanest streets of the city deal with some of the kind of seediest situations I loved his answer I like these people now mind you mind you John Green hates prostitution he's seen it you know up close and the damage it does to people he hates hates the sin but he likes the sinners and I liked the fact that he used that word love can be very abstract sometimes but to like someone is to want to spend time with them people when I was working in the seminary over many years and especially as rector people would ask me what are you looking for in a seminarian and you know the standard answer is you want someone that's bright and prayerful and good-hearted etc etc and all that's true but I came in recent years to use this response I'm looking for people who like sinners people like John Green hate to sin we hate sin see what it does to people how destructive is but who likes sinners so there's point number one everybody Jesus Jesus likes sinners which is why he's more than happy to move into our space see we're all Samaritans in that sense we're all kind of you know half-baked and not altogether and don't worry about it don't worry about it Jesus moves into our space and then it says he comes to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph Jacob's Well was there and Jesus sat down by the well again every detail matters in John did a well mean to a first century Jew it meant a trysting place now why do I say that well because throughout the Old Testament husbands and wives met at wells so think when they're looking for a wife for Isaac Abraham sends a servant he sits by a well and then he sees Rebecca he sees the wife-to-be of Isaac Jacob meets his wife Rachel at a well Moses meets his wife Zipporah at a well remember in the Ten Commandments Charlton Heston like a well meeting his wife so for a first century Jew a well was a place where you'd expect couples to come together Jesus wants not simply to be for us a moral exemplar not simply to be someone that we admire oh what a wonderful distant figure he was long ago we the church by the way are not the members of the Jesus Christ Society you're like you'd be a member of the Abraham Lincoln Society admiring this great distant figure we are cells molecules and organs in his mystical body he's the head we are the body that's how intimately joined we are to Jesus and now shift the metaphor shift the metaphor Jesus wants to marry us go back to the prophet Isaiah Isaiah says your builder will marry you he says to Israel well who's the Builder but God God doesn't want just be be feared from a distance he wants to marry his people establish that kind of intimacy with them who's Jesus but the incarnation of this love and so he wants to marry you he wants to be in the most intimate bond possible and so can you see everybody all the sacraments of the church in a way are twisting places there are moments of the proposal of marriage you know wonderful in the story the prodigal son what does the father put on the son's finger but a ring but a ring that's a marriage ring it's a wedding ring and so Jesus tonight as you come to confession is proposing this relationship of intimacy with you me the likes of me yes he likes sinners and proposes marriage to them how wonderful that John tells us it was about noon what's happening at noon it's the brightest time of the day light light is a great motif in the Gospel of John the light shines in the darkness the darkness shall not overcome it this is a moment of tremendous illumination when Jesus sitting down by the well proposes marriage to his people it's exactly why Saint Agustin he was up here somewhere is named san agustin said that the woman here the Samaritan woman is a symbol of the church what is Paul called Jesus but the bridegroom and we the church are the bride that's what we're seeing here every sacrament is the proposal of a wedding ring then we hear a woman of Samaria came to draw water jesus said to her give me a drink so as I mentioned first of all how shocking this was but a Jew would speak to a Samaritan that a man would speak publicly to a woman strange violating all the norms of the time but another question comes to mind how come this single woman one person is coming to draw water at the worst time of the day if your desert person the worst time today is high noon the Sun is at its zenith it's the hottest most uncomfortable time of the day and you've got some serious physical work to do to bring this water up to put it on the jar up carried on your head it's hard work which is why women would come usually together there's a time of fellowship and helping each other and they would come at the morning or the evening when the Sun wasn't so long so how come this woman is coming alone at the worst time of day well as we'll see because she's a well-known sinner undoubtedly someone whom the other women didn't want to associate with someone who's had a string of husbands is living now with someone who's not her husband she is in a word a triple outsider we're all in the same boat we're all seasick right we all feel don't we and maybe some in this room now feel it especially as you you think of the prospect of confession owner on know what I've done or the person I've been I mean God doesn't want to anything do with me and you know I've heard that a lot in the course of my pastoral ministry look look father it's great but I'm just not someone that God wants to associate with Jesus likes sinners this triple outsider Jesus cuts through all of the conventions of the time to reach out to her and to you tonight notice please his first word give I'm gonna elaborate this a little bit but just stay with that for a second the first word he speaks to this woman is give rule-of-thumb a spiritual rule you can live by when you find yourself in a dark place alone or depressed guilty isolated what's the way out give-give every instinct in us says no no no no take protect hang on to what you've got right especially when you feel threatened or you feel depressed or alone afraid take protect give his first word give don't worry about doing great things mother Teresa said but do little things with great love right live by then everybody live by that and I'll say more about it you're stuck you're alone you're afraid you're depressed give find some way to make your life a gift I got so excited there I turn the page back to chapter 3 I gotta get back to chapter 4 give me a drink she balks as we've seen why I mean how can you a Jew ask me a Samaritan for a drink and then listen out of the Lord if you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water okay you I'm gonna do now I'm gonna lay on you a little spiritual physics so it's physics there are these laws in the spiritual life that are as clear and as definite as the laws of physics now here's one of them John Paul - call it the law of the gift and here's how it works if you take nothing from my talk tonight please take this and put it up on your refrigerator or your screensaver or something here's here's the principle is the law you're being increases in the measure that you give it away we say it again you're being increases in the measure that you give it away it's a law of the gift it's a law of the spiritual life again every instinct in us says the opposite which is why that law is so hard to understand and to follow because every instinct says no no fill up right if I'm if I'm in trouble I'm not liked I'm unhappy I'm lonely we'll fill up take things in hang on to them protect them you're being in fact will decrease in the measure that you do that now why is this true here's another principle amount of spiritual physics what alone will make us happy will satisfy the soul again where's it gonna he's here somewhere he's over here oh good look you can find a Gustin just look in there but Agustin gave us this principle that is just so good it's on page one of his great confessions oh there he is he's over here on page one of his great confessions Agustin says Lord you have made us for yourself and therefore our heart is restless until it rests in thee right Lord you've wired us in such a way that we will be satisfied only by union with you only by filling up our hearts with you with our hearts be satisfied right and we know that you know take all the goods of the world and and you accomplish all you want take them all in they don't satisfy the deepest longing of the heart right we know that okay but whose God God is love right so here's the paradox if you want to fill your heart with God and that's the one thing that will satisfy your heart and God is love that means as you receive the divine life you give it and as you give it you receive more of the divine life ah and when you get that give it too and you'll find it increasing in you thirty sixty and a hundredfold as Jesus says as you receive the divine life give it and then you get more of the divine life then give it and you get more of the divine life and give it and soon it becomes listen now to the Lord Jesus everyone who drinks this water that you're seeking will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst now listen listen the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life that's it that's the physics I'm talking about that's not just pretty poetry everybody that's the law of the spiritual life you're being increases in the measure that you give it away what did Paul tell us he's up here too it needs some worsening Paul they're all here at this great Cathedral what did Paul tell us yeah there he's over there what do you have that you've not received right think about it I mean your your mind your heart your will your power is your passion your very existence in you we live and move and have our being we say that means everything you've got is a gift of God so what do you do with that give it give it and you'll find it increasing give it away you'll find it increasing give it away it'll become finally what water welling up in you to eternal life okay stay with the image for a second is very important now as we approach confession this image of the well of the well think of now the Samaritan woman she's coming every day to get water which she drinks or her family drinks and then she's thirsty again right and so back she goes drinking and getting thirsty drinking and getting thirsty in this endless cycle that leaves her unsatisfying was that symbolized again agustin it symbolizes he said the rhythm of disordered desire you know we call it today it's almost exactly what Agustin described long ago we call it addiction think of the well now is symbolic of all those ways we seek to satisfy the longing of the heart with something other than God Thomas Aquinas there he is I know where he is time is a quiet this is great the visual aids here at terrific weird speaker Thomas Aquinas said there are four typical things that we seek in place of God and again take this to the bank spiritually it's been very illuminating for me in my life for things that we see we tend to seek wealth pleasure power and honor those are the four wells if you want that we tend to go to we say alright I'm unhappy how do I get happy well I just need enough of wealth or pleasure or power or honor if I get enough of those I'll be happy so I go to the well right and I drained from it and I am for a time satisfying there's a kind of buzz that comes from the experience but what happens to that kind of buzz anybody that's ever wrestled with an addiction or have a loved one who has what happens that buzz it wears off because we're not wired for that we're wired for God okay so the buzz wears off what do I do back to the well that's the well I drink satisfied I get the buzz but what happens then again anyone is wrestled an addiction knows what I'm talking about that buzz wears off even faster and so back to the well back to the well the buzz coming and going faster each time now back to the well with a frantic urgency back to that well drinking and getting thirsty drinking getting thirsty sound familiar fellow sinners see we're all this woman one of things I'm gonna ask you as an examination of conscience name the well what is it in your life we all got one we've all got one or two or three or four what's the well to which we return frantically even addictively trying to fill up the hungry heart which only can be filled weirdly by giving away go back to Aquinas there a wealth pleasure power honor years ago when I was doing pastoral ministry full time I was working in a parish on the North Shore in Chicago which would be like Beverly Hills here or like Montecito or something it was a upper-class area and so after Mass the not comes the door and this very well dressed well quaffed well-spoken gentleman shows up about forty-five father guy talked to you sure so we sit down and I remember he said father all my dreams have come true and so summoning all my years of study in theology and philosophy and psychology I said great big help I said great and he goes and I'm miserable terrific it was a terrific bit of spiritual self-diagnosis all my dreams come true I'm 45 I've got everything ever wanted and I'm miserable what did he want well he wanted all the North Shore all the Beverly Hills all the Montecito dream my first you know million by 34 10 million by 40 run my own company had the all the cars I want the biggest house and and what I told him that day st. Agustin I said but the Lord didn't make your heart for the Winnetka dreams he made your heart for him and therefore your heart is restless til it rests in him wealth can be like a well that we go back to frantically and even realizing all of our dreams of wealth make ourselves miserable in the process pleasure pleasure talk to anybody who's been addicted to sex or pornography or booze or food or whatever it is some form of sensual pleasure do you get a buzz from it yeah that's why it's it's so overwhelmingly popular but the buzz wears off doesn't it from pleasure so back you go back you go to the well and you drink and the buzz wears off faster so back you go back you go and before you know it you're trapped in this rhythm of concupiscent desire to use a gust in terms we'd say today addictive desire how about power st. Thomas Aquinas power power but we all watch the Tolkien movies right the last you know what 10 years ago now what was the ring what was the ring it was a ring of power wasn't it tokine he was very spiritually perceptive man had watched the all the ups and downs of the great tyrants of the 20th century he knew the extremely seductive quality of power he get a little bit of power and you get a buzz from it don't you and whether its power on the grandest scale or power within your family power within your relationships whatever it is you get a little bit and you get a buzz wears off and before you know it you're going to Matt well again and again and again do you know I don't bet to Tolkien I think was the very first of the Lord of the Rings movies when Gandalf the great wizard who's a Christ figure by the way Gandalf comes to find Bilbo who has the ring number and there's a moment when Gandalf has great spiritual figure this great wisdom figure spies the ring and you know he's played by the great to Ian McKellen the great actor and in the eyes of Gandalf you see for that moment he was seduced by the ring he wanted it and anyone that knows the token world that to me was the most frightening scene in the whole thing it wasn't orcs and all that it was that moment when Gandalf the great Gandalf was so seduced by the Ring of Power that he was about to take it and God help the world if Gandalf got a hold of the Ring of Power you know go from off to - my nephew drew when he was four this is now so twelve years ago his sister Lauren was two at the time and my whole family was up at Mundelein seminary where I was rector and we're having 4th July cookout and at one point we all had to cross this road to get somewhere else and the road was a little there's some cars on it so I just said are everybody you know be careful watch a little bit at the far end of the group there was my little nephew drew with his little tiny sister and drew said Lauren stop don't go any what occurred to me was like here's the one person this kid could possibly boss around and he bossed her around power his like that is like we just like it it's a wealth a lot of people go to leaves you as thirsty as the other ones right the last one honor I'll tell a story on myself but when I was a little kid you know I did well in school and so I bring my papers to my father who was a lovely guy and I'd say here's my papers with you know a 100 on them and he would say that's great kiddo I'm so proud of you and man I got a buzz from that as you do from honor from praise you know well I realized though right away I gotta go back to the well again because I got to perform the same level to get the same praise next year so I'd go to my father but then eventually it occurred to me look he's my father I mean he'll praise me for anything I I better get you know my high school teachers to praise me and I'll go back to that well but then high school heck I need my college professors to praise me and then I'll even go across the ocean to the Institute catholique of Paris to get them to you know honor is like that too it's a rhythm of concupiscence of addiction when I was ordained Oh maybe two years I had given a homily in my parish that I thought was pretty good and felt good about it and I came down then to distribute communion later in Mass I'm body of Christ Body of Christ and this man comes up to me and I said the body of Christ and he said that was the worst sermon I've ever heard how does to God and you know if you're an honored junky this is not a happy moment you know here's the thing can I direct your attention now in this wonderful space right behind me here here's so many times acquainted soon you want to be happy here's the formula love what he loved on the cross and despise what he despised on the cross now think about it wealth van will make me happy go back to the well of wealth over and over again that'll make me happy wealth nothing he's got nothing utterly poor pleasure that'll make me happy just go to that well a pleasure over and over again I'll be happy pleasure he's at the limit of physical and psychological and even spiritual suffering God my God why have you abandoned me power that'll make me happy just go to that well over and over again power he's nailed to the cross he can't even move honor oh that's it if they just think highly of me they honor me there he's nailed to this instrument of torture right outside the walls of Jerusalem so that anyone coming in and going out would see him naked nailed to this horrible instrument what were they doing we hear in the gospel they shook their heads at him they mocked him they spat on him honor you want to be happy Thomas said despise what he despised on the cross in other words don't fuss with wealth pleasure power and honor they won't make you happy what they love on the cross doing the will of his father or if you want giving his whole life as a gift there it is that's spiritual physics this is not just a you know a pious representation it is that but you know what that cross is everybody it's the display it's the display of the physics of the spiritual life it's showing us this great law what happens to this woman should happen to all of us tonight Jesus helps her see the problem which is this darned well that you keep going back to over and over again obsessively addictively how lovely she says they say that when the Messiah comes he'll tell us everything about us he'll tell us everything we've ever done I the one who I'm speaking to you and he says Jesus did he tell her every little detail of her life no he didn't have to because he revealed the pattern to me he revealed the pattern this is what you've been doing all your life long and so and I'll close with this so what does she do it's what we're being invited every one of us by Jesus tonight invited them to do the same thing she sets down the water jar that's the moment of liberation isn't it see pick your poison we've all got him there's some addiction that's brought us all here tonight pick your poison name it name it in front of Jesus he knows all about you he wants to marry you you know I mean every Saints got a pass don't worry about that he's come right into Samaria looking for you don't worry about it name the poison named the well what do I keep going back to and he's saying look all that stun has made you crazy and unhappy I want to give you water welling up in you to eternal life and the key give-give make your life a gift and then look at the last thing she does sets down the water jar and then she goes into the city and she tells everybody she can about Jesus how wonderful by the way that she becomes there by the first evangelist in the Gospel of John she's the first one to announce Jesus to others now see why why because she wasn't talking about a spiritual abstraction she was talking about someone who had told her everything she'd ever done who unlocked the secret of her unhappiness and opened the way to her happiness and that's why from the bottom of her heart and from her guts she spoke of Jesus the last several Pope's of all Tobi's about the New Evangelization right that we're all called to see but where does it come from it comes from a lived experience of Jesus who has changed us if he's just a you know a figure from a book he's a figure from long ago then we're not going to evangelize we might teach some truth things about him but we're not gonna evangelize unless he's reached all the way down into our dysfunction and then set us right best definition of evangelization I've ever heard one beggar telling another were to find bread that's eventual ization that's exactly what she does one thirsty person telling another where the living water is and so what we're all thirsty everybody in this room we're all thirsty were all sinners we've all been crawl into those darned wells all our lives tonight is the time you come to Jesus Christ who wants to marry you wants that relationship of intimacy with you tell him tell him clearly and honestly what that well is that means confess your sins and then accept from him this word of liberating grace and then you'll become an evangelist one beggar telling another where to find bread let's say so cross answer me see okay Oh me Oh friends let us pray now for the healing power of God over our sins Almighty and merciful God you brought us together in the name of your son to receive your mercy and grace in our time of need open our eyes to see the evil we have done touch our hearts and convert us to yourself give us a new heart to love you so that our lives may reflect the image of your son may the world see the glory of Christ revealed in your church and come to know that he is the one whom you sent our Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God for ever and ever let's take just a moment everybody to examine our conscience I'll just introduce some questions that are meant to stir some reflection in our hearts do I pray do I regularly participate at Sunday Mass am I willing to stand up for what I believe do I seek revenge when I feel I've been wronged am I willing to forgive those who've hurt me or treated me unjustly do I show dignity and respect to those with whom I live and work have I made an honest attempt to conversion this Lenten season let's pray now together as an integral act of the of the Sacrament of Penance let's pray the act of contrition to express our sorrow before the Lord I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words in what I have done and what I have failed to do through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God father our source of life you know our weakness may we reach out with joy to grasp your hand and walk more readily in your ways and we ask it through Christ our Lord

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Length: 47min 37sec (2857 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 22 2016