Bishop Barron's Daily Gospel Reflection - Yoke sharing

Word on Fire Ministry | 6-19-2020 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Matthew 11:25-30 Friends, in today’s Gospel the Lord offers to relieve our burdens: "Take my yoke upon you . . . and you will find rest for yourselves." Jesus almost always speaks in paradoxes, and this is another one. "I will put a yoke on you." Now, if I am burdened, the last thing I want is a yoke that will make my life more burdensome.

But here’s the paradox: What is it that makes our lives heavy and weighed down? Precisely the burden of our own egos, the weight of one’s own self. When I am puffing myself up with my own self-importance, I’m laboring under all that weight. Jesus is saying, "Become a child. Take that weight off your shoulders and put on the weight of my yoke of my obedience to the Father."

Here’s how it works: If you have two animals yoked together when they’re both pulling, they are doing each other’s work. Jesus is saying that if your life is heavy and burdensome, it’s probably because you are caught up under the weight of your own sense of self-sufficiency. Get rid of that and take the yoke of Christ’s obedience upon your shoulders. Allow yourself to be led.

[detch]

The May 13, 2018 Catholic Standard reported that the so-called “conservative” Bishop Robert Barron (who is a “friend” of gay activist Fr. James Martin) is a collaborator of gay activist Gregory who apparently is and was part the gay bishops network. (Twitter, Fr. James Martin, April 30, 2012, Martin: “Here is my friend Fr. Robert Barron”)

https://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/06/is-gay-activist-homosexalist-dc.html?m=1

I sure would like some answers - as in “straight talk” from Bishop Barron.

[MurphsLaw]

Was there something disagreeable with his reflection of today’s Mass Gospel?

Did you not agree with his thoughts on what Christ said “Take my yoke upon you ‘……. And you will find rest for yourselves” Did reading what he wrote give you any pause to think – or was it discarded?

Look I get those who don’t like him or disagree with him. He has said some things the traditional crowd abhors. He has also said things the liberal crowd vehemently disagrees with. He calls it as he sees it based on his knowledge and education which is deep.

But understand first and foremost his vocation is to bring people into the Church, to bring them to Christ. In his position, he has to live, believe and hold true the “God Loves everyone.. as a Child of God… Love Your neighbor / enemy... yada, yada” stuff…. and also that we shouldn’t throw stones or even that Christ hung out with the sinners of his day- no matter how appalling it was to the Pharisees. Bishop Barron has to approach his outreach believing all that stuff which doesn't always coincide with what we want...

So what did you not like about his Gospel Reflection today ?

[detch]

The Gospel Reflection was ok.

His association with McCarrick, Wuerl, Gregory, Martin is NOT OK.

If he’s not homosexually inclined he should denounce the behavior of those above, who are - particularly Gregory who is the Archbishop of Washington DC, who followed the two previous disgraced Archbishops.

[MurphsLaw]

Well like I said... he has to believe in that love thy neighbor deal, love your enemy, hate the sin, not the sinner malarkey where we don’t have to.... its like an occupational hazard...
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So we should pray for him for sure, and not listen to any pro-homo stuff... just the Jesus stuff...

[ebb tide]

WHO'S HE TO JUDGE? Bishop Barron & the Church of Accompaniment

Bishop Robert Barron gives an interview to a 'married' homosexual talk show host in which His Excellency says he would not reverse the law which legalized 'gay marriage'. So, has the Church officially surrendered to the Culture of Death? Are homosexual acts still intrinsically disordered? Sinful?

Saved by “Conscience”? The Gospel According to Barron

“No. The Catholic view (on salvation)—go back to the Second Vatican Council [which] says it very clearly. I mean, Christ is the privileged route to salvation. ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we may find eternal life’ [paraphrase of John 3:16], so that’s the privileged route. However, Vatican II clearly teaches that someone outside the explicit Christian faith can be saved. Now, they’re saved through the grace of Christ indirectly received, so I mean the grace is coming from Christ, but it might be received according to your conscience. So, if you’re following your conscience sincerely, or in your case, you’re following the commandments of the law [of Moses] sincerely, yeah, you can be saved.”

According to Barron, the Catholic view only goes back to Second Vatican Council.

And aren't Barron's and James Martin's homo friends just "following their consciences"?

And finally, Barron, despite the warnings of Jesus Christ, believes Hell could very well be empty:

From Hell Is Real—and It Isn’t Empty published in Crisis Magazine:

Bishop Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and a pioneer of online evangelism, is hardly prone to controversy. Yet the telegenic prelate stirred something of a firestorm back in June that continues to spill ink today. In fact, it isn’t a new debate at all. Commenting on the Gospel reading for June 25 (Matthew 7), Bishop Barron noted that, “from time immemorial,” people have asked who will be saved and who will be damned. In response, Barron argues:

The official answer of the Church is that we don’t know. We are clearly warned about the real possibility of damnation. We do indeed know that there are many in heaven, for the saints are formally declared to be so. But there are no anti-saints in the Church; there is no one whom the Church has formally declared to be a denizen of Hell.

That is not the Catholic Church's view. There a souls in Hell, we just don't know who they are or how many there are. But Jesus Christ said their were souls in Hell and that more souls would go to Hell.

I would not waste one minute listening to or reading one sermon from this goofball homo-promoting heretic.

[ebb tide]

He has said some things the traditional crowd abhors.

Just traditional Catholics? You don't think other Catholics abhor his heresies on homos and Hell?

[ebb tide]

Bp. Robert Barron’s Spiritual Poison

A clear and present danger to souls

[ebb tide]

Bp. Barron Suggests Censoring Catholic Social Media

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - A leading U.S. prelate says bishops should have more control over Catholic organizations online. 

Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Los Angeles, has suggested bishops should "introduce something like a mandatum for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church."

"whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church".

Barron would be the first to fall under the sword of his own "mandate".

[ebb tide]

Well like I said... he has to believe in that love thy neighbor deal, love your enemy, hate the sin, not the sinner malarkey where we don’t have to.... its like an occupational hazard...

He doesn't seem to hate the sin. After all, he said he would not reverse the law which legalized 'gay marriage'.

How do you explain that?

[MurphsLaw]

If a non-believer....or lapsed Christian decided to get into an RCIA program after listening or reading Bp Barron's work- would you welcome that person into the Church... Or would you say no..."you failed the purity test - no Church for you!" It's a fair question to ask.

I have a reasonable hope you would welcome....but I'm not so sure...

Why are you distorting what this Bishop is saying.... To fit your narrative to oppose him?...crap don't you get enough of that from the commie liberal media we have on a daily basis? It's bad enough his critics can't resist taking take umbrage with Bp. Barron's self-assured or smooth, intellectual style and personality...red flags for sure...
What the Bishop said in that interview:

Ruben: You’re personal feelings on this matter…I assume you felt it was the wrong decision by the Court – is that fair to say?

Bishop Barron: Yeah, no, I do, but I don’t think I want to press it much further, I think where we are right now in the States, I’ll apply the Aquinas principle, I think it would probably cause much more problem and dissension and difficulty if we kept pressing it.

Where in that does he say it's not sinful or that he agrees with it? You can say he is not a fighter, but don't say he agrees with it. That's being dishonest. And while I can enjoy Voris, Marshall Skojec's fighting passion and all of the tough talkers out there defending Traditionalism- none of them have taken on the role to bring people to Christ through the Church the way Bishop Barron has set out to do. And that requires a different approach......

Do you really think homo marriage is a bigger problem facing the Church than 25% Catholic Mass attendance and belief in the Eucharist Real Presence? And the courts are stacked against you anyways, seeing what happened this week with SCOTUS proves Barron was right. Religion in Secular America will be abolished. Yes we can kick and scream all we want.... But who are we really doing that for? That is why Christ didn't pick up a stone to punish the adulteress..... He WAS the better way....

no doubt Bishop Barron has said questionable things....who hasn't? You want to crucify him because his opinion does not align with what God wants..... Well... Be ready to jettison St. Augustine, Aquinas, Cdl Newman, Chesterton JP2, Benedict XVI and Mother Teresa while your at it. ALL of those mentioned have held positions or said something CONTRARY to Catechal Church reaching.

Some online rebuttal that you don't really want below:

1) In the critque on Barron's teaching on hoping that all men will be saved, one succinctly concludes that Barron's teaching is "simply not the Catholic view" but the conclusion does not follow. First of all, Barron does not state that hell is not a physical place, but that "it is not so much" a physical place. That is obviously true as the current occupents of hell; fallen angels and all of those (if any) men and women who have definitively rejected God, are not currently in Hell physically. Angelic spirits and human souls are not properly said to be in a location but in a state of being. Thus, Barron's analysis is completely in line with the Council of Florence's teaching that "souls of those who depart in mortal sin, or only in original sin, go down immediately into hell."

2) There is a regrettable massive confusion between "reasonably hope{ing] that all be saved" as Barron puts it and making a theological conjecture or hypothesis on the probability that no human being is in Hell. The Catechism defines hope as "the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1817)." By this definition, I would argue that no only can we exercise hope in the salvation of each human person, but we are obligated to based on the dictates of charity. Regardless, morphing Barron's argument here into some kind of forced theological hypothesis is either illogical or dishonest. You decide which one you fall into.

3) The accusation that Barron "chooses instead to promote the heretical novelty of Balthasar that Christ had to learn about His identity through a gradual enlightening of His consciousness" is quite deficient and practically scandalous. It is traditional Catholic doctrine that Christ both had complete, perfect infused knowledge at every moment but also grew in acquired knowledge. Of course, there is nothing in Barron's quote that undoubedtly expresses that he believes that Christ grew in infused knowledge. (But has a very interesting perspective on WHY Christ needed Baptism) Also, the style of the piece proves it is not meant to make scientific theological statements as it is formed in the style of a meditative devotional piece. Of course, devotional works are subject to the laws of truth but the same standard of word by word scientific analysis is not warranted.

[ebb tide]

If a non-believer....or lapsed Christian decided to get into an RCIA program after listening or reading Bp Barron's work...

Why in the world would any non-believer decide to enter the Catholic Church when Barron is running around telling people all they have to do is follow their consciences to be saved?

Bishop Barron: Yeah, no, I do, but I don’t think I want to press it much further, I think where we are right now in the States, I’ll apply the Aquinas principle, I think it would probably cause much more problem and dissension and difficulty if we kept pressing it.

You call that a correct response from a Catholic bishop on homo marriage? "Yeah, no, I do, but I don’t think I want to press it much further, I think where we are right now in the States,....

Why doesn't he want to press it? He doesn't want to press the rightful comdemnation of legalized sodomy because he's a coward. He's a francisbishop, no better than the likes of Cupich, Gregory, Seitz, et al.

Be ready to jettison St. Augustine, Aquinas, Cdl Newman, Chesterton JP2, Benedict XVI and Mother Teresa while your at it. ALL of those mentioned have held positions or said something CONTRARY to Catechal Church reaching.

Please give examples to back the above claim. Did any of the above propose we can hope Hell is empty?

As far as your readers' comments: they're laughable.

[MurphsLaw]

From the Catechism of the CATHOLIC Church:

#847
This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337

#1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved." She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.

OK. Let’s agree to avoid each other. Your beef is with The Church....

Does Bishop Barron deny that hell exists? Does he think all people will be saved, no matter what? Is he convinced that all people will end up in heaven? We receive emails and comments like these nearly every day at Word on Fire, partly because certain websites have wrongly attributed each of these views to Bishop Barron, at one time or another.

But does Bishop Barron really believe those things? Or are they distortions of what he’s taught and advocated? The purpose of this FAQ page is to provide a one-stop source for honest people looking for clarity on the issue. In particular, our intention is to clarify what Bishop Barron believes about hell, damnation, and salvation, and to confirm that his views are within the confines of orthodox Catholic teaching.

What does Bishop Barron believe about hell and salvation?
Bishop Barron simply agrees with what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph #1821, where it says we should hope and pray for all men to be saved:

In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere “to the end” and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God’s eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for “all men to be saved.” Does Bishop Barron deny that hell exists?
No. Bishop Barron does not deny the existence of hell, because to do so would be to deny permanent and authoritative Church doctrine. He agrees hell exists and is a real possibility for every person.
Does Bishop Barron teach we can have a “reasonable hope” all will be saved? If so, what does he mean by “reasonable”?
Yes, Bishop Barron is convinced we have a “reasonable hope” that all will be saved. But the first step in assessing and critiquing a view is to understand the terms of the view as its proponent is using them. It’s important to note how Bishop Barron is using those two words in this context (“reasonable” and “hope”). First, he means reasonable in the sense that we have good reasons to ground our hope—namely, the cross and Resurrection of Jesus and his divine mercy. He isn’t making any sort of probabilistic judgment, as if to say reasonable means “very likely” or “quite probable.”
Second, we should recognize hope to mean a deep desire and longing, tied to love, for the salvation of all people, but without knowing all will be saved, thinking all will be saved, or even expecting all will be saved.
Bishop Barron does not hold any of these alternative views. He does not know all will be saved, he does not think all will be saved, and he does not expect all to be saved.
Is Bishop Barron a universalist?
No. Universalism is a heresy that has been condemned by the Church. Its adherents claim to know that all people will be saved. Universalism is a claim of certainty, to have definite knowledge about hell being empty. But Bishop Barron doesn’t claim this. He is not a universalist. He doesn’t claim to know all people will be saved, nor does he even think or expect that all will be saved. Instead, he merely prays and hopes that all will be saved. It’s critical to make these distinctions.
Didn’t Our Lady of Fatima show a vision of many people suffering in hell? Yes, as a warning of the torments of hell—not as a window into an unavoidable future. We know this because in the same Fatima appearance, she also gave us the Fatima prayer, commanding us to recite it often, begging Jesus to “forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy” (emphasis added).
Our Lady would never ask us to pray for something that’s impossible, so there must be at least a basic hope for the possibility that all souls can be led to heaven.

[ebb tide]

OK. Let’s agree to avoid each other.

No, there's no agreement. You quoted a post VC II catechism, English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.

Here's a comment from EWTN about your new catechisms:

After the Second Vatican Council, a number of new catechisms appeared which did not present Catholic Doctrine as it should be presented, and these new publications even included some very grave errors. Coupled with the new methods, whereby children are not required to memorize, two generations of children have grown up not knowing the Catholic Faith.

My beef is not with the Catholic Church. My beef is with VCII, all it's rotten fruits, the homo-friendly, hell-is-empty Bishop Barron and your support of this heretic.

Here's what a preconciliar Catholic catechism has to say about Hell and the Last Judgement:

The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."⁶¹⁷ The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion (something your Bishop Barron obviously doesn't believe in): "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."⁶¹⁸

Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."⁶¹⁹

God predestines no one to go to hell;⁶²⁰ for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":⁶²¹

Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.⁶²²

V. THE LAST JUDGMENT

The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust,"⁶²³ will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."⁶²⁴ Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."⁶²⁵

So no, I will not avoid you nor your insufferable support of a homo-friendly, heretic bishop.

[ebb tide]

Does Bishop Barron deny that hell exists?

Who said he did say that?

Maybe you should address that same question to Pope Francis:

During the meeting Scalfari asked the pope where “bad souls” go, to which he was quoted as responding: “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”

[detch]

Well like I said... he has to believe in that love thy neighbor deal, love your enemy, hate the sin, not the sinner malarkey where we don’t have to.... its like an occupational hazard...
.
So we should pray for him for sure, and not listen to any pro-homo stuff... just the Jesus stuff...

---

Not just the “Jesus stuff” but also we should expect a straight, honest answer regarding his alignment with “known” homosexual and pedophile leaders of the church, and his commitment to following Catholic Church doctrine and to the words of the Bible as well.

Yes, we should pray for him, definitely.