Extreme Demand, Extreme Mercy

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

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

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2014

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's Gospel, Jesus intensifies the moral law and raises the bar higher than it ever had been. Christ's goal, and the Church's goal, is to make saints. His moral demands are great, but so is his mercy. He always offers grace and forgiveness when we falter so that we can always have hope in our stuggles for sanctity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to
0:08.9	reflect with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on
0:13.8	Fire Catholic Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization
0:18.8	using new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to
0:23.5	open our hearts to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our
0:28.5	hearts are open, the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about
0:34.1	the one who is love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese
0:39.0	of Chicago now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Friends, our gospel for today is
0:49.5	taken from the beginning section of the Sermon of the Mount. Jesus has already symbolically
0:56.4	established himself as the new Moses, going up on a mountain giving a new law. Furthermore,
1:03.9	his, you've heard it said, but I say, has revealed that he has authority even over the Torah.
1:11.2	That's what he's talking about. You've heard it said in the Torah, the great law given by God
1:16.3	to Moses, you've heard it said there, but I say, extraordinary claim of authority. What's
1:24.6	clear, therefore, is that the law is not being abrogated. It's being intensified. The person
1:34.5	speaking here is not an anti-Moses. He's a new Moses. He's not undermining the law, but rather
1:44.6	he's raising it to a new pitch of intensity. See, we shouldn't play the either or game here of,
1:51.8	well, the era of the law, that's all over, that's gone. Now it's the era of grace or whatever.
1:57.2	Rather, it's the old law is now raised up, which is why he says in the gospel today. Amen. I
2:07.7	say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a
2:14.5	letter will pass from the law. Keep in mind, the law was always meant to bring humanity into
2:24.8	line with divinity. In the beginning, this was an easy matter. Adam and Eve before the fall,
2:34.8	walking an easy fellowship with God. But then after the fall, the law has got to be given to
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