Accepting Our Mission from God

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

Spirituality, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s first reading, we find the story of Jonah, a narrative about the acceptance (or rejection) of God’s mission. We are all called to difficult things, and so most of us sinners, most of the time, do everything we can to avoid our mission. In Jonah’s case, it was physical flight, but for many of us it’s choosing to ignore what God has said, a giving in to every other voice, taking the path of least resistance, making excuses, pleading our own sinfulness, settling for spiritual mediocrity. What would happen if every single person in our society commenced to embrace his or her mission from God? One man converted the entire city, from the King to the very animals. Nothing is impossible for God and for those whom God has empowered.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an
0:05.7	apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and
0:11.8	new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with
0:16.9	Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring
0:22.2	the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite
0:28.3	you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the
0:32.8	warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.
0:39.4	Peace be with you. Friends, our first reading for this weekend is from the
0:43.6	marvelous book of the prophet Jonah. I'm always delighted when I have the
0:47.9	opportunity to preach on Jonah. One of the shortest books in the Bible. It's
0:51.6	maybe three pages in most Bibles. You can read it easily in one sitting. But
0:56.0	boy, his net book punched above its weight over the centuries because so many
1:00.2	preachers and poets and artists have been intrigued by it. By the way, go on
1:05.4	YouTube. Look up Father Mapel's sermon. It is from the film of Moby Dick and
1:11.0	Father Mapel gives this magnificent sermon on the book of Jonah. Trust me, it'll
1:15.8	be better than my sermon now. But go on that. One of the great sermons ever
1:19.5	written and it's a explanation of the book of Jonah. So I'll try my best to match
1:24.8	Father Mapel's sermon. Jonah is all about mission or the refusal of mission. I've
1:33.2	said many times to you. Everyone in the Bible who has an experience of God is
1:38.5	sent on mission. It's never just that God speaks or God appears and that's
1:44.1	enough. No, no. The grace received always has to be translated into grace
1:49.2	given. And so everyone sent on mission. And so Jonah is about someone who
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