Focus on the One Thing Necessary

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

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

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Friends, the Gospel for this Sunday is the wonderful story of Martha and Mary. But the Church sets this up in a really interesting way by giving us a first reading from Genesis 18—the mysterious story of Abraham being visited by three guests. The two stories together show us that the problem is not hospitality, nor being active as opposed to contemplative; rather, the problem is being focused on many things instead of the one thing necessary, in which everything else tends to fall into the right place.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an
0:05.8	apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and
0:11.9	new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with
0:17.0	Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring
0:22.3	the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite
0:28.4	you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the
0:32.9	warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.
0:41.8	Peace be with you. Friends, the gospel for today is that wonderful and familiar
0:46.4	story of Martha and Mary. But the church sets us up for this in a really
0:51.0	interesting way by giving us a first reading from the book of Genesis. We're in
0:56.2	chapter 18. It's this very mysterious story of Abraham being visited by three
1:01.6	guests. But listen to how this thing begins. How strange it is. The Lord appeared
1:09.4	to Abraham. So it's this is a theophany. This is a appearance of God. The Lord
1:14.0	appeared by the terrible of memory as he sat in the entrance of his tent while
1:18.5	the day was growing hot. Looking up, what did Abraham see? He saw three men
1:24.1	standing nearby. Well, how can a Christian not be rather fascinated by this? It's
1:29.9	being described as a theophany, an appearance of God, the God of Israel. And yet he
1:34.7	appears as three figures. You know that great icon that's painted by Rubelloff,
1:41.1	the Russian artist, and it's of the Trinity we always say, but it's actually a
1:44.7	picture of these three visitors of Abraham who are recognized as a kind of
1:49.5	foreshadowing of the Trinitarian revelation of the Father, Son, and Spirit. And
1:55.6	listen to this interesting detail. When he saw them, he, this is Abraham, ran from
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