Should We Build Walls or Bridges?

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

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

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Friends, our first reading this Sunday reminds us that we need walls to maintain our identity. But our ultimate purpose is not to hunker down behind those walls, but to go out and transform the world. We need both the walls that define who we are, and the bridges that allow us to bring the light of Christ to all the nations.

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
0:17.0	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.
0:39.5	Peace be with you. Friends, two of my favorite books in the Old Testament, two very
0:44.8	interesting texts, but often overlooked are the books of Ezra and Niha Maya.
0:49.4	They come at the very end of the sort of stretch of historical books going from
0:54.4	1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, and then we come to
0:59.0	the books of Ezra and Niha Maya. And they recount a very interesting moment in
1:04.0	Israelite history and hence in the history of salvation. After the great
1:08.6	Babylonian exile, the people are carried away, the city of Jerusalem has been
1:13.0	destroyed. After that is over, some of the people begin trickling back to their
1:18.9	homeland. They come back to Jerusalem and Ezra and Niha Maya tell the story of
1:24.2	that moment. One of the most moving scenes I find is in the book of Niha Maya
1:30.1	when this more political figure, Niha Maya, comes back and he sees the ruins of
1:38.2	Jerusalem. Imagine if Paris had been destroyed in a great war and a
1:46.4	Parisian wandered back and saw the wreckage of this once magnificent city.
1:54.6	Suppose Rome, the time like bomb had fallen and a Roman, or any Catholic wandered
2:02.4	back into the eternal city and saw its ruins. Imagine in the American context
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