God's Grace and the Structures of the Church

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

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

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2003

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The structures of the Catholic religion are deeply rooted in the tradition and flow, ultimately, from the will of God. They are the ordinary channels through which the divine grace flows. However, as the Gospel for today clearly indicates, God is not restricted by the institutions and structures that he himself established, and so his grace can operate even outside of the official church. Whatever is good, true, and beautiful in culture, society or other religions is, indirectly related to Christ and thus should not be suppressed or despised.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic cemeteries, serving the Chicago area since 1837,
0:06.5	and FSP dedicated to food service excellence.
0:10.9	This is Cardinal Francis George, and I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to
0:15.1	reflect with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.
0:21.7	Father Barron will challenge us to open our hearts to the Word on Fire, which is God's
0:26.0	Word of Love for each of us.
0:28.3	If our hearts are open, the Lord can change and transform us, who we might speak with love
0:33.7	about the One who is love.
0:36.6	The Archdiocese of Chicago through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parishing Winnetka now presents
0:41.6	the Word on Fire.
0:44.1	Please be with you.
0:45.9	Friends, our readings for today highlight a problem that you can see from the beginning
0:50.2	to the end of our tradition.
0:52.3	What I mean is the tendency of religion sometimes to become its own worst enemy.
1:02.2	Institutions, practices, customs within religion can sometimes when they become corrupt
1:07.7	undermine religion itself.
1:11.2	Here's the specific issue that our readings highlight, and it's as old as the hills and
1:16.9	as relevant as today's headlines.
1:20.3	It's the issue of religious exclusivism leading to religious violence, exclusivism,
1:31.1	us against them, our little group, leading to religious violence.
1:36.7	Listen to how the issue is set up in both the first reading and the gospel.
1:42.4	The first reading is from the book of Numbers.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bishop Robert Barron, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bishop Robert Barron and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.