Robert Barron - Called by God (In Washington, DC)
The House will be in order. The prayer this morning will be offered by the guest chaplain Bishop Robert Barron, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, California.
Let us pray: Oh God, source of all justice, you've summoned everyone who works in this chamber to walk the path of righteousness. To foster life and liberty, to care especially for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. Make them mindful of the time when they first heard your voice and followed it with idealism and enthusiasm. Illumine their minds. Direct their wills. And shower oh, Lord, your choicest blessings upon our country. Amen.
This city means a lot to me, I lived here for three years. When I was a kid studying philosophy at Catholic U. So I came into this airport many times. I always kinda feel at home in Washington. I'll be speaking at the Library of Congress tomorrow. And then I'm also giving the opening prayer in the House of Representatives.
Bishop Barron is a number one best selling author and he's spoken to Facebook and Google and Amazon and now to the United States Congress. Ladies and Gentlemen, Bishop Robert Barron.
Thank you so much for that really kind introduction. Here's what I'm not gonna do today. I'm not gonna talk at all about hot button issues. Not because I don't think they're important, they are. Serious people engage in those conversations they're important questions. See my concern is that when we rush right away to the hot button issues, we miss sometimes those really deep and inviting points of content. Ways that religion can inform what lawmakers are doing. Can I ask you to go back in your imagination, to when you first heard the call. Chances are when you were recover that moment, you found a time of enormous grace, inspiration, and spiritual clarity. The ancient philosophers, they're echoed by all the medievals and many of the moderns too. Talk about the three transcendental properties of being. Whatever is in the measure that it is, is true, beautiful and good. In Catholic theology, truth itself, goodness itself, justice itself, are simply names for God. When you find the moment in your life when you were seized by a passion for justice, you were called by God at that moment. God, justice itself, calls us personally. And what matters is how we respond. Remember that time, all of you, when you first heard the call. And I'll just say it, honestly and bluntly, from God to do the work of justice. Can you follow the theo drama, and let go of the ego drama? Everything else will follow from that.