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, St. Paul is very hard to understand.

Let me just begin with that remark. You know, very often over the years, as I sit up in my

presider's chair on Sunday, and I hear the words of St. Paul being proclaimed, it's usually the

second reading at Mass. I often think

there's no way people are taking this in. I'm not blaming you. I think we take these little

snippets out of the letters of Paul. And then see, Paul is also a densely complex writer. He's

almost like a poet where he'll pack an awful lot of meaning into a few short lines.

The other problem with Paul is the language he uses is often shifted in meaning over the century

so that often will take in almost the opposite of what Paul meant.

All this is just a way of saying what I open with. I think Paul

is difficult to understand. But you know, I love St. Paul. And he's so important for understanding

what Christianity is about. He's the first great theologian of our tradition. And in some

ways, all the theology is just kind of a footnote to Paul.

He's the one who explained to us what this thing is all about.

So what I like to do in this homily is move very slowly through the brief second reading we have for today.

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