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, the

third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudeté Sunday. Now Gaudeté

is a Latin imperative. It's a command. So the church is telling us to be happy

and it gives us in our first reading which is from the marvelous 61st chapter

Isaiah the reasons why we should rejoice. You know from the time of the church

fathers Isaiah has been seen as a sort of Old Testament gospel in miniature.

There's so many features of Isaiah that anticipate the life of Christ and

gospel themes. Think for example of the suffering servant motif in Isaiah which

is used by the church fathers to interpret the cross etc. But there are many

more. We heard a few weeks ago about Cyrus being called the Anointed of the

Lord. So a Messianic theme. Messianic themes of course run right through it.

And today's passage from Isaiah 61 is a beautiful example of this

Messianic consciousness. Listen, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because the

Lord has anointed me. Now here's the interesting thing about that. In the Old

Testament you've got priests are anointed and kings are anointed but prophets

typically aren't anointed. Therefore Isaiah is not talking about himself here

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