Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Friends, the great parable at the heart of our Gospel today—the parable of the talents—is taken from the world of economics. Jesus often draws upon this world when describing the dynamics of the spiritual life. And here, he gives us an image of growth through risk and a willingness to invest what we’ve been given. The analogy might seem coldly grim, but this is how it works in the spiritual order!

Friends, our first reading this Sunday from the book of Wisdom begins, “Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.” The Bible is preoccupied with the search for wisdom because Jesus is the Wisdom of God made flesh. But to get there, I want to first move step by step through this passage, which lays out an extraordinary vision of the Wisdom of God—a person who not only is sought by us but also seeks us out.

Friends, All Saints Day falls on a Sunday this year, so the Church can give special attention to this important solemnity. Léon Bloy famously said that there is only one real sadness in life: not to be a saint. Sainthood is the ordinary goal of Christian life; it’s what the whole spiritual life is about. But what does it mean to be a saint? What do we have to do to become one? And do we truly want it?

Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is from the twenty-second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has been doing battle with the scribes and Pharisees, and this passage brings that great argument to a conclusion in an interesting way. One of the teachers of the law, making an old move in rabbinic circles, tests him: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” In other words, can you sum up the richness and complexity of the law in one statement? When Jesus gives his answer, we’re on holy ground, because this is not just one rabbi among many but the Lord—the Word made flesh—telling us what’s at the very heart of the matter.

Friends, on this Twenty-ninth Sunday of the year, our Gospel features the question from the Pharisees about paying taxes. In response to the trap, Jesus offers one of the most famous one-liners in history: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." His answer didn’t automatically solve the problem of the relationship between church and state, but it did point the way through two opposite extremes, both of which are predicated on a false understanding of how God relates to the world.