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, all three of our readings for this weekend speak a

primordial spiritual truth. That's to say the need to detach oneself from the

goods of the world. Let me say that again to basic Christian spiritual

principle. The need to detach ourselves from the goods of this world. Now over

the years I've insisted frequently on this point, but it's it's worth doing

again. This detachment has nothing to do with hatred of this world or a

suspicion of matter or the flesh. That's the dualistic, puritanical, platonic

interpretation. And that's just not biblical. The Bible's written by people out

of a Jewish frame of mind and there's nothing of that puritanism or dualism in

the Jewish frame of mind. Rather it has to do with what I'd call the wearing

lightly of this world and its goods. Even as those goods are acknowledged and

celebrated, wearing lightly this world that it's goods. Now our first reading is

taken from that extraordinary book. We now call it the book of Kohalith. It was

known as the book of Ecclesiastes years ago. Kohalith is the narrator and he

presents himself as King Solomon in old age. Hence he's you might say the

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