Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us. Peace be with you. Friends, I want

to focus this week on the brief but extremely powerful passage from the book of

the Prophet Jeremiah, which is our first reading for this weekend. You know,

again, I'm on this kick and we Catholics have got to get better at reading the

Bible. Take out the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. It's a little tricky. I

think you'd get a good commentary but it's such a rich experience to go through

that book. So our past is today is a very brief one taken from the 17th chapter

of the Prophet's book. The context is a fierce upbreeding that Jeremiah is

giving for the idolatry of the people. You know, our word Jeremiah, you know,

someone gives a very strong and critical talk. Well, that's because Jeremiah is

kind of like that. He'll typically upgrade the people. They're beautiful

lyrical passages too in Jeremiah but he's kind of known for this tough, you know,

tough love approach. And he's going after, as I've often said, the principle sin

in the vision of the Bible, which is idolatry, that has to say, turning something

less than God into God. That's always the fundamental spiritual problem.

Only other spiritual problems and moral problems come from that one. So we hear that the people

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